How Common are Chemicals and Fragrances at Home?

written by Mark Sneller, PhD |

A popular shampoo for women has twenty-two chemicals plus fragrance. Another brand contains as many as forty ingredients. The male version has somewhat fewer ingredients, plus fragrance. The typical bar soap has as many as eighteen ingredients plus fragrance. The fragrances in bar soap and shampoo become volatile (airborne), which means we inhale them in the shower. The effect is enhanced by the chloroform and smell of chlorine that comes from the warm water tap.

We dry our heads and bodies with towels that have been washed in laundry detergent with fragrance and a little chlorine bleach, and then placed in the dryer with an antistatic product plus fragrance. Skin care lotion has twenty-four ingredients plus perfume. A popular self-action tanning lotion has thirty-four ingredients.

After showering, most people use deodorant containing about ten ingredients plus fragrance. Hairspray has eighteen ingredients plus a fragrance and a propellant. Hairspray also has acrylate copolymer thickening agent, which is a form of plastic. Isobutane is a common propellant in hair sprays and mouth spray fresheners, non-stick cooking sprays, and numerous other products . It’s a small hydrocarbon molecule that is liquefied under pressure and becomes a gas when the pressure is released. Isobutane is considered innocuous in terms of causing any health effects when it is used as a carrier propellant for products used in the home. Unless carbon dioxide is used, propellants should be considered flammable and should not be used near an open flame.

Many people use body lotion or body talc after the shower. Men use aftershave. Virtually all of these are scented. Makeup frequently contains formaldehyde, and the allergic reactions it causes are well documented. Toothpaste may contain ten ingredients and a “flavor enhancer.” Mouthwash can have twelve ingredients plus “flavor”.

It’s easy to see how our lungs, hair, skin, and clothing come in contact with an ocean of solvents, dyes, and chelating agents to bind the ingredients, perfumes, emulsifiers, and various enhancers. We can be exposed to as many as a hundred or more chemicals and a half-dozen fragrances, and we’re not even out of the bathroom yet.

A vast amount of research has shown that chemical compounds and fragrances often are toxic to our bodies. Are we losing the war for better respiratory health because somebody else is telling u...

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