Imagine yourself in a flower garden, a shady
pine forest, a lemon grove on a summer day or on a tropical island
at sunset. Peaceful, joyous images come to mind for most of us-and
this is exactly what the manufacturers of many cleaning products
aim to deliver to your very own home!
Cleaning product manufacturers anticipate and respond to the
needs and desires of their customers, predominantly women, who look
for products that enhance the experience of cleaning and add a
sensory pleasure to their homes. But most of us are unaware that
thousands of synthetic chemicals are used to create modern day
fragrances for our products, and that some of these chemicals have
been linked to health impacts ranging from eye and skin irritation
to hormone imbalance and increased risk of breast cancer.
Furthermore, these ingredients are kept secret-the vast majority
of manufacturers currently are not disclosing fragrance ingredients
on websites or on the product label, and these ingredients are
frequently claimed as confidential business information. This means
that consumers are unable to avoid certain chemicals even if they
desired to do so. The only current solution to reducing exposure to
chemicals of concern is to avoid fragranced products all together,
and this is simply an unfair choice.
What's that Smell? is designed to shed some
light on the associated human health impacts of common fragrance
ingredients in cleaning products. Specifically, it presents the
current scientific findings on allergens linked to eye and skin
irritation and breathing problems, synthetic musks linked to
hormone disruption and potential increased risk of cancer, and
phthalates linked to reproductive and developmental harm.
This report also highlights the need for additional studies to
better understand the impacts that exposure to these chemicals have
on human health, particularly during critical stages of development
such as pregnancy and infancy.
What's that Smell? is intended to provide
consumers with alternatives for reducing their exposure to
potentially harmful chemicals in fragranced cleaning products and
to offer some policy solutions for protecting public health in the
long term.
Download the Executive Summary
Download the Report
Return to the Main Report Page
Originally published in Women's Voices For The Earth,
June 22, 2010