Having been on vacation, please enjoy what should have been last month's episode of "Down The Rabbit Hole".
They are everywhere. In our homes. In the places we shop. In our vehicles. Everywhere. It is nearly impossible to find a safe place to escape them. Fragrances.
It seems society has become obsessed with scents. On one hand, this may not be anything new. The ancient Egyptians were very fond of perfume and to possess it, was a trait of being well known and wealthy. But, what has taken place over the last couple of decades goes beyond a favorite fragrance worn on or about the neck.
It is a proven fact that the olfactory nerves and receptors are human kind's ability to be thrown back in time. A certain scent can put us back in grandma's kitchen or make us believe we can literally feel the sand beneath our feet at the ocean's shore.The fact that it is nearly impossible to buy a personal care product without a scent, shows that marketing agents could smell the money. Practically every household has some sort of air freshener, be it a candle, a diffuser or an automatic gadget that releases a blast of fragrance every 20 minutes. I was once in a home that had so many scent burners going at one time, I could hardly take a breath.
Could there be a downside to having everything we use loaded with fragrances? Studies show that some side effects to fragrances include allergies, asthma, dizziness, headaches and even cancer, kidney damage and autism starting in the womb. Most of the scents today are synthetic, man made. Some are even made from crude oil. The unfortunate knowledge for us is the fact that many of the chemicals used do not have to be listed in the ingredients. They can hide behind the word 'fragrance' and no one needs to know any more. I checked a few of the products I have and three out of three had 'fragrance' listed in the ingredients, not what the fragrance was made of.
The following was taken from an article on the Scientific American website, titled, Scent of Danger: Are there Toxic Ingredients in Perfumes and Colognes? : The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a coalition of over 100 groups seeking transparency about chemicals in cosmetics, commissioned independent laboratory tests that revealed 38 secret chemicals in 17 leading fragrances. The top offenders? American Eagle Seventy Seven topped the list with 24, followed by Chanel Coco with 18 and Britney Spears Curious and Giorgio Armani Acqua Di Gio each with 17. "The average fragrance product tested contained 14 secret chemicals not listed on the label", reports EWG, which analyzed the Campaign's data. "Among them are chemicals associated with hormone disruption and allergic reactions and many substances that have not been assessed for safety in personal care products." EWG adds that some of the undisclosed ingredients are chemicals "with troubling hazardous properties or with a propensity to accumulate in human tissues." Examples include diethyl phthalate, a chemical found in 97% of Americans and linked to sperm damage in human epidemiological studies and musk ketone, which concentrates in human fat tissue and breast milk.
I find that frightening.
My most recent search for something unscented was in the deodorant isle. As I searched for my favorite brand, there were none labeled as unscented. I finally settled for original clean. Although deodorant itself could be fodder for another blog, if I want my armpits to smell like apples, I could just grab a couple of apples off the produce rack and place them under my arms. There are some things in life that do not need to smell like anything and perhaps we should re-learn to open the windows.
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