Fragrances - An Unknown Health Hazard

Our society is one of perpetual work. After a long day at the office, after we have been sucked dry and are mentally and physically exhausted, we get into our cars or on the train and head for home. We are tired and irritable, and the primary thing on our minds is to go home, eat dinner, and relax. We are longign for some quiet time and a good meal. Upon stepping into the front dor, while removing our shoes, we wonder how long it will be before our family presents us with teh first crisis. Suddenly, we notice a tantalizing, familiar scent in the air. As the scent brings vivid mental images of our favorite dinner, our mouths begin to water and shoulders begin to relax. WE find ourselves smiling at the realization that our loved one, in an attempt to welcome us home and show their love, has prepared our favorite dinner. Our mood for the evening has been set - we are now looking forward to a delicious dinner anda pleasat evening - al from the scent of our favorite meal cooking a few rooms away. Yes, although it is least understood, our sense of smell is a very important one indeed.

In fact, the American culture is obsessed with the sense of smell. Fragrance is added to so many products that the scent of an item can be a major consideration in which brand (or variety within a brand) we purchase.. We buy perfumes and scented products without a second thought - shampoos, soap, lotion, cleaning products, detergents, gasoline, cosmetics, foods, deodorants, and many other products contain fragrance. We love to scent our bodies and homes, and we feel it is a necessity to cover up or stop our natural body odors. All of these scents and fragrances are constantly flowing in the air around us, affecting our physical, mental, and emotional health. We consider these fragrances to be a normal part of our daily lives and personal care. WE do not question their safety. We do not know that the FDA has very little control over these fragrances, which are almost exclusively synthetic, and most of us do not question the impacts they have non our health. Meanwhile, fragrances drift in the air currents that surround us and accumulate in our bodies, making us increasingly sensitive to chemicals and carrying with them the potential to cause serious health problems.

Originally, fragrances consisted of oils and essences from natural sources, such as essential oils and deer musk. These scents are found in and obtained from nature and have been used for millennia for spiritual and medicinal purposes, and later for cosmetic uses. Their benefits and drawbacks have been well understood for thousands of years. Today, however, few natural fragrances are used - over 90% of all fragrances are now synthetic copies of natural scents (as well as many that are not found in nature) made largely from petroleum. They are powerful synthetic chemicals and are used as combinations to create a desirable scent. One fragrance can contain as many as 600 different chemical ingredients! There are about five thousand different chemcials used by the fragrance industry. Many of these chemicals have not been tested.

The FDA does not require outside testing of fragrance chemicals, nor are they required to be tested at all before they reach the market. In fact, the formula of any particular fragrance is considered a trade secret; thus its ingredients are not required to be revealed. The fragrance industry is completely self-regulated, choosing which chemicals it will test and how they will be tested. The industry testing organizaitons (The Research Institute for Fragrance Materials and the International Fragrance Association) test only dermal (skin) and oral routes of exposure, ignoring systemic and respiratory affects. They make recommendations about the chemicals that have been tested, limited their useo r advising discontimuation of teh substance, but these recommendations are not bindinga nd are not and cannot be enforced. In fact,t eh recommendations by these organizations are largely ignored. Furthermore, many chemicals may not be tested until the original patent expires (about twenty years).

We are taught that if we want to be pretty, we must smell pretty. If we want to be successful, we must wear the scent of success. The perfume or cologne chemicals that we apply to our skin is not ony absorbed and stored in fat tissue, but it is realeased into the air and is breathed into our lungs, our childrens lungs, and our neighbor's lungs. While we think that our choice of personal care products affects only us, the residues are washed down drains and acumulate in our water supply. Because these chemicals are stored in fat tissue of humans and animals, they have entered the food chain. Many of the synthetic fragrances are considered sensitizers: chemicals that, over time, make an individual more and more sensitive to all chemicals. Our favorite scents are most likely forcing our bodies to become more reative to chamicals in general, ften causing symptoms much like allergic reactions and dermatitis. In fact, many perfumes contain more than three known sensitizing fragrance chemicals; every time we dab our pulses iwth our favorite scent, we add layer upon layer of powerful chemicals.

Fragrances are causing health problems for many individuals. They are the number one cause of adverse skin reactions to cosmetics and laundry products. Perfumes and fragrances are triggers for headaches, including migraines. They trigger asthma (the Louisiana State Medical Center ofundt hat one out of every five people with asthma get attacks from exposure to perfume), COPD, sinusitis, rhinitis, bronchitis, and Multiple Chemical Sensivity. They cause skin rashes and dermatitis. They can cause lethargy, depression, convulsions, enlarged lymph nodes, liver damage, sore throat, cough, cancer, hyperactivitey, tremor, seizures, neurotoxicity, decreased expiratory airflow velocity, fatigue,a nd birth defects. Some chemicals found in fragrances are designated as hazardous waste materials, meaning that they are dangerous and must be disposed of carefully and in designated places. Meanwhile, we are unknowlingly applying these dangerous chemicals to our bodies and clothes, while the fragrance industry continues their roaring success.

Musks

Real musk is expensive and hard to obtain, while synthetic musks are cheap and easy to produce, thus, they are used commonly in many products. Musk xylol, musk ambrette, and musk ketone are very common synthetics. Musk ambrette has been used as a fragrance since before the 1920s and is often used in artificial flavorings for cherry, nut, spice vanilla, and mint. Most synthetic musks are neurotoxic and cause nerve damage and braind damage, including musk xylol and musk ambrette. Musk ketone has been largely found in breast milk and fat tissues.

AETT is another synthetic musk that was found to be severely neurotoxic. AETT was patented in the 1950s and was not tested until 1975, when it was found to be severely hazardous to human health. It caused severe brain damage as well as excessive motor activity, gait abnormalities, limb weakness, foot-drop, clonic-like movements, and weakness in mice. It also turned their skin and internal organs blue! The industry "voluntarily" disconnected use of this chemical after these results were made known, but there was no recall on products and the public was not informed.

Coumarin

Coumarin was banned for use in food by teh FDA because it caused liver damage in rodents. Yet coumarin is still used in fragrances (such as Joop by Wolfgang Joop), cosmetics, perfumes and soap. Iti s a possible carcinogen and is absorbed through the skin at a rate of over 95%. Coumarin is also used commonly as an anticoagulant drug, perventing blood clots from forming in patients to whom it is perscribed. while the hospital requires a strict prescription and doctor's surveillance for this chemical, it is readily aviailable in popular fragrances. You are absorbing a powerful anti-blood clotting agent through your skin!

Diethyl Phthalate (DEP)

This chemical is found in popular modern fragrances, such as Calvin Klein's Eternity. It has been shown to cause anterior pituitary adenoma, a tumor which can cause a disruption of the hormone which controls growth. It has also been shown to cause cancer in mice. This chemical is fat soluable and accumulates in body fat.

TV commercials advertise how nice our kitchens and bathrooms will smell after cleaning with a certain product.. Every step our cats make in their litter boxes refesches the air and keeps the area smellig flowerly fresh. Magazine advertisements have succeeded in convincing us that we will be desirable adn sexy only if our bodies have the sweet scent of perfume or cologne. We can play and sweat as long and hard as we want, but our underarms will still smell baby-powder fresh. We buy the products. We scent our bodies and our homes. Because fragrances easily becme airborne, they linger and flow in the air inside our homes, our cars, offices and environment. The censt that we put on our bodies beofre we leave the house in the morning bombards those who work beside us in the office. This can be a serious problem that affects the health of manypeople. Look at the television and magazine advertisements closely. they promise that the smell of our laundry will make us better mothers and wies, and that the scent on our bodies will determine if we will be considered desirable and sexy to the opposite sex. Take notice of the numerous scents that surround you during your day - in the shower, on the street, while cleaning the kitchen, and in the office. Each of these chemical fragrances that usually go unnoticed could be negatively affecting our health.