Toxic Fragrances versus Organics and Aromatherapy

While some devotees of cologne and perfume like their fragrances long-lasting, they may be unaware that it is phthalates – causing the disagreeable odor at the nail shop - that act as a perfume fixative, retaining the smell for 24 hours and sometimes much longer, even after clothing has been laundered in a washing machine or professionally cleaned. In fact, these same chemicals permeate the fragrance in laundry detergent, which is why it doesn’t wash away in the rinse cycle. If you find that you cannot seem to wash off fragrance from laundry detergent, fabric softener, shampoos, cologne, pump soap, dishwashing liquid, or cleaning products, you might want to change brands because you could be compromising your health. The chemicals in fabric softener sheets like Bounce are left embedded in clothing. They shorten the life of sheets and clothes, and the substance rubs off on your skin, potentially causing skin irritation and respiratory problems.

Also be aware that the switch from one heavily advertised brand to another is not likely to help.

How to Buy Safe Cleansers and Cosmetics that Enhance your Health

Buying products designated “unscented” eliminates the toxics in synthetic fragrances, but if they are commercial brands they will likely contain toxic chemicals elsewhere in their ingredients, many of which according to US labeling laws are not required to be listed.

Natural botanicals and pure essential oils, by contrast, have therapeutic properties and have been used - literally for thousands of years - for their health-conferring benefits as well as for beauty and enjoyment. The safest approach to shopping for personal care items and household products is to buy from companies that have never used toxic ingredients. These include the following:

(1) 100% Organic products which by legal definition preclude use of toxic processing or ingredients

(2) Cosmetic companies like Aubrey that never test their products on lab animals because there is no need, as the ingredients are all known to be safe

(3) Products containing scents naturally derived from botanicals like coconut oil or essential oils

(4) “Green” companies like Method whose mission is to produce quality products that do not harm the environment

(5) Cosmetics made using 100% pure, distilled essential oils by genuine aromatherapy companies

Reputable aromatherapeutic products are available in most health food stores as well as online. Trader Joe’s does a good job of providing unscented and natural-scented soaps, shampoos, and laundry detergent as well as organic produce and pet food. This does not apply to all TJ brands, however; read the labels to be sure of what you’re getting.

Don’t be fooled by heavily advertised brands like Clairol Herbal Essences, a shampoo that has co-opted two of the most holistic-sounding words in its very name, yet is highly toxic. If a product is advertised on television, the ad budget has compromised the quality of the product. It means the company’s priority is on marketing, promotion, and hype.

Skin creams, makeup, shampoos, or colognes purporting to be “natural” may not be - not if the single word fragrance is listed in the ingredients. Sadly for the unsuspecting public, the word fragrance is legally defined as a scent produced synthetically in a laboratory, usually through petroleum-based chemistry.

Topical preparations are absorbed systemically through the skin, in some cases more efficiently than if they were consumed orally. For this reason, it’s a good idea to avoid putting anything on your skin that you wouldn’t consider safe to eat.

Chemical Hazards from Multiple Sources

The news of a statewide ban on phthalates follows several other alarms sounded recently about the presence of chemical dangers to health to which the public and wildlife are commonly exposed, in everyday consumer products and even new forms of advertising.

Wetlands advocates and other environmental groups have issued warnings and public safety requests to Bay Area residents to forgo phthalate- and bisphenol-containing plastics, cosmetics, and cleansers because the chemicals in these products find their way into runoff that kills or harms wildlife in the Bay. As for human health, phthalates – linked to cancer, birth defects, and neurological damage - were found in 75% of urine samples tested in a 2003 study on safety (http://www.environcorp.com/img/media/Phthalates.pdf).

Meanwhile, perfluorinated compounds - used in Scotchgard, Gortex, and nonstick surfaces like Teflon, are showing up in marine life literally throughout the world – the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the Atlantic, the Ganges in India, the Midway Atoll in the Pacific, Korea, Canada and the US, and even as far away as Antarctica . These chemicals have caused hormone disruption, immune compromise, and devastating neurological effects. They have been linked to cancer in whales and dolphins, a disease previously unheard of in cetaceans (http://assets.panda.org/downloads/causesforconcern.pdf).

Fake Cookie Smells

Last year, San Francisco bus shelter ads exuding aromatic smells of chocolate chip cookies were pulled after multiple complaints and controversy. Conceived by the “Got Milk” people – the California Milk Processor Board, the ads prompted complaints by health activists in defense of people with asthma and chemical sensitivity. Resisting behavioral manipulation, diet-conscious people complained of being driven by temptation while waiting for the bus. Others worried that cookie smells would constitute cruel and unusual punishment for the homeless who routinely sought shelter there from the elements but might not have the ready purchasing power to satisfy cravings (SF Chron, 11/30/06 and 12/6/06). Clearly, if the smells were genuine baking aromas, they would not trigger asthma attacks or neurological symptoms; rather it is synthetic chemicals that are health hazards.

Synthetic Pheromonal Pesticide

Hundreds of residents in Fresno were hospitalized earlier this month with stomach pains and shortness of breath when a synthetic pheromone-containing chemical was sprayed on crops to eradicate the brown apple moth. Whether it was the pheromone itself that caused illness, or other chemicals added to the pesticide, is still under investigation. Judge Robert O’Farrell issued a temporary injunction to stop the spraying, but he has since ruled that the spraying can resume, even though the source of the problem has not been identified; thus it would seem that locals will again be at risk (SF Chron 10/19/07).

Statewide Ban Enacted: Phthalates

Front-page news last week from the California Assembly highlighted passage of a statewide ban on phthalates, a softener in plastics (San Francisco Chronicle, 10/16/07). A nationwide push to ban phthalates is currently taking place in nine other states as well, according to the advocacy group Environment California. Though common in the US in items ranging from baby bottles, toys and teething rings to hospital IV bags, household cleansers and cosmetic fragrances, phthalates are banned in fourteen countries, as well as the European Union.

“Death by Perfume”

Long suspected of causing adverse health effects, phthalates in items ranging from plastics to perfumes have been linked to hormone disruption in animals, developmental damage in young children, and breast cancer (Gretchen Lee, Breast Cancer Fund, op cit). In the class of phthalates is the substance that “fixes” the scent in perfumes, making their smell linger. Phthalate enables molten acrylic to soften, and its noxious volatile odor is what causes nausea, headaches and other neurological symptoms in susceptible people when exposed to the smell of acrylic nails being applied in manicure shops.

Industry representatives claim that a ban will deny consumers the products they “want and need” by removing them from store shelves, and that “scientific reviews here and in Europe have found these toys safe for children to use.”(Jack Gerard, American Chemistry Council, ibid). However, a ban by the European Union suggests otherwise. Absent citation of such scientific reviews, one suspects they may be industry-funded research commissioned and designed to arrive at the conclusion of safety.