Why Air Fresheners are Harmful to You

Ever wonder why air fresheners are harmful to you and your family? That fake “clean” smell comes at a price, one we think is too high!

Stinky, Bad Odor, Smelly, Foul, Malodorous, Putrid, Rancid, Rank, Noxious, Rotten, and Stale are all common descriptions of Dirty. Aromatic, Fragrant, Pure, Sweet, Perfumed, Fresh, Hygienic, Sanitary, and New are all common descriptions of Clean. In the eternal quest to get that “clean” smell, we use a wide variety of chemicals. When looking under your sink, you may be surprised to find many Toxic cleaning supplies.

Air Fresheners, Deodorizers, Odor Removers, and Disinfectants used in cleaning to achieve the fresh clean smell are some of the worst offenders. Many consumers like the way their cleaning products smell, but many do not know that synthetic fragrances can contain highly toxic substances, in short, fragrances and air fresheners are bad.

The dirty side of air fresheners is that they are nerve-deadening chemicals that interfere with our sense of smell. These air freshener harmful ingredients coat our nasal passages with an oily film, by masking an offending odor with a different odor, or by deactivating the odor instead of getting rid of the odors.

None-the-less, we use a LOT of them. The Women’s Voices for the Earth reported in their 2007 hazards Report that California sold 34 TONS of air fresheners each day! This is just a part of a multi-billion dollar cleaning product and janitorial supply industry.

Synthetic Fragrances are everywhere.

They are composed of hundreds if not thousands of ingredients that companies are not required to list individually on the label – “fragrance” is enough. In fact, many companies regard fragrance as a corporate trade secret, which further hinders efforts to require disclosure of the ingredients.

The most common ingredients in the popular air fresheners in use TODAY include:

• Formaldehyde, a carcinogen and sensitizer
• Naphthalenea suspected carcinogen
• Xylene, a neurotoxin and possible reproductive toxin
• Butane gas, a neurotoxin
• Phthalates, a substance we now all know to avoid in plastics, a hormone disruptor with adverse effects on male children and reduced sperm count in adult men. According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control, some studies link phthalates to liver cancer.

These air freshener fragrance harmful ingredients are nearly always present in minute quantities. While scientists have known for a long time that high levels of exposure to some chemicals can be linked to certain chronic diseases, even more disturbing is that research now suggests that even minute traces of some chemicals may affect processes like gene activation, hormone production and brain development in newborns.

Because of the fragrances used, dryer sheets are downright U-G-L-Y. The best thing to do is stay away from them learn about alternatives of What To Do with Dryer Sheets.

So what is the option? When you clean focus on eliminating the source of odors so you do not need to mask the smells. Additionally, stay away from the traditional petrochemical cleaners as many of the fragrances added to the cleaners are designed to mask the stinky ingredients in the product. The products available from Green Cleaning Products will keep you from being exposed to the synthetic fragrances that are so dangerous.

Shop for Green Cleaning Products

Looking for the best non-toxic, non stinky, green products? We are pleased to offer green cleaning products for sale from a number of hand selected companies that we feel offer the best products for  our customers!

Enzymatic Cleaners such as WowGreen Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner

Fragrance Free Cleaners such as: EnviroCare All Purpose Concentrate,
EnviroCare Tough Job Concentrate and  (JANITORIAL| BULK) SNAP EnviroCare Glass Cleaner.