When I first sat down to write this post, I was pretty frustrated — with the mom who stood near me at the cross country meet on Saturday, my Sister-in-Christ who sat in front of me at Mass on Sunday, and even my poor Father-in-law when he came over to visit on Sunday night. I was frustrated and annoyed with their highly-scented ‘perfume clouds’!
These three people just happened to be my ‘last straw,’ but I quickly recognized that my frustration isn’t really with them. The same frustration and uncontrollable coughing wells up in me every time I enter a heavily ‘Frebreezed’ hotel, the laundry aisle at the grocery store, and the perfume & makeup area of every store I’ve ever visited.
It might seem silly to some, but for those of us who suffer from fragrance sensitivity, it’s no joke. The struggle is real and synthetic chemical fragrance is everywhere.
“There’s a school of thought that draws a parallel between second-hand scent and second-hand smoking. In both cases, the problem is a fundamental biological one: even if you don’t like what’s in the air, you can’t choose to stop breathing.” —Kate Grenville
Related Post: “3 Big Problems with Laundry Scent Boosters & Why You Need to STOP Using them”
Why does fragrance and perfume make me cough and feel sick?
This is a question that I never really considered before I started going green. I just figured I was the only one. I must just be odd or crazy. But then as I started researching how some chemicals can be dangerous to the environment and pollute our water supply, I also began to realize that these same chemicals can pollute the air and our bodies too.
In her book, “The Case Against Fragrance,” award-winning novelist Kate Grenville wrote 198 pages to answer my question in great detail.
As a fragrance sensitive person herself, Kate shares her own experience and how her sensitivity became so severe during her 2015 book tour that she felt compelled to research and write about the dangers of chemical fragrances.
Her “case against fragrance” goes deep into the how’s and why’s of fragrance sensitivity and she does a great job explaining with research studies to back her up.
In this interview, Kate explains briefly how fragrance affects 35% of people and some of the dangers synthetic fragrances can cause.
Based on her research, Kate shares many sad realities in her book, including:
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- Approximately 35% of people suffer some kind of reaction to fragrances including breathing problems, coughing, severe headaches, and other reactions.
- Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are found in almost everything from our personal care products to carpets and some are known to be carcinogens (cancer-causing) and cause other health reactions.
- Chemicals used in perfumes and other scented products like air fresheners, shampoos, and cleaning products contain known hormone disruptors.
- Some of these chemicals cannot be removed by water treatment plants and cause additional problems and bioaccumulation in animals and ultimately in people.
- Using multiple chemical products increases our risk by layering assumed-safe levels of a chemical into higher levels which can lead to more severe problems like prostate, breast, and other cancers.
- Greenwashing is a common practice and you need to read your labels. Often labels that use eco-friendly terms use little to no earth-friendly ingredients and hide the chemicals under the terms fragrance and perfume.
- Approximately 35% of people suffer some kind of reaction to fragrances including breathing problems, coughing, severe headaches, and other reactions.
If you’re a frequent reader of my blog, you know that my frustration with chemical fragrances isn’t new. My post titled, “3 Big Problems with Laundry Scent Boosters & Why You Need to STOP Using them” and my review of Molly’s Suds Laundry Detergent both talk about these dangers and offer options for healthier, green alternatives.
“Out in the general population, fragrance causes health problems for over a third of people. To put that in human terms, if you’re one of sixty people on a bus going to the city in the morning, up to twenty people around you may be getting unwell from fragrance.” — Kate Grenville
If you suffer from fragrance sensitivity or would like to learn more about the how’s, why’s and dangers of chemical fragrance pollution, I highly recommend Kate Grenville’s book. She gets down deep into the biology and science of the issue but explains it in a very relational way that only an award-winning novelist can do well.
How can I find Kate Grenville’s book?
You can get “The Case Against Fragrance” in print or in an eco-friendly Kindle Edition through my Amazon link here: “The Case Against Fragrance” by Kate Grenville
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Can we start a class action lawsuit against these companies who make highly flagrant chemicals for clothing? I have all of the problems you addressed here. I’m having family problems over this and I may end up in divorce.
VI
To Vi, I’m sure waiting for that class action suit, too. While I’m lucky to have a husband who supports me in my struggles with severe fragrance and chemical sensitivity, there is nothing we can do to stop the neighbors’ laundry chemicals & fragrances from poisoning the air in our yard and inside our own house! It goes on for hours on three to five days per week and there is no escape for me.
To Darlene, thank you for writing about this issue. We need the awareness to grow. So many of us who are sensitive also tend to be very polite people and find it difficult to speak out when we are being injured by people’s products, especially since there seems to be so much going against us with all the industry advertising and brainwashed consumers. There really is a parallel with second-hand smoke, and my life was greatly improved when smoking was finally banned in many public places. We can only hope the fragrance issue takes the same trajectory but in a much shorter timeframe. By the way, I also want to mention that some of us do react to essential oils as well as synthetic fragrances.
Jess
I was wondering if anyone knew how to get laundry product fragrances out of clothing.
After a recent significant weight loss, I was able to get some like-new, freshly-washed clothing from a lady who had also lost a lot of weight, just to get me by.
It had been so long since I had used perfumes that I didn’t realize how strongly I would react until I got them home and was trying them on to see which sizes actually fit. I had to stop trying things on and quickly stuff them back into the bag as a migraine tried to creep in.
I have remained feeling like I could break out in hives for days, since.
My husband can handle the clothes to soak and re-launder them. I tried soaking one item in baking soda with multiple rinses, followed with a vinegar soak and more rinses, but it still isn’t getting the job done.
Can anyone suggest a fix? I’m desperate!