Perfume, deodorant, laundry detergent, hand lotion, soap, shampoo, dryer sheets, hand sanitizer, potpourri, scented candles, air freshener. What do these products have in common? Artificial fragrance made from endocrine disrupting chemicals.
Olfactory Trespassing
For those of us with autoimmune disorders or Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), the products above can do more than just ruin our day. They can ruin our health.
The Toxicity of Everyday Products
Most of these chemical fragrances contain endocrine disrupting chemicals which may lead to cancer and interfere with immune system function too.
I’m a Hugger
I love hugging people. I’m a hugger! But there’s nothing worse than hugging someone and having the chemical fragrance from their perfume of cologne stay with you all day. It stains my clothes and doesn’t come out in the dry cleaning. The stuff has staying power.
Losing our Sense of Smell is Making us…
All of these scented and perfumed products are so strong that we are losing our sense of smell. It’s like listening to loud music blasting through a speaker. Soon one cannot discern softer sounds.
Lose our Sense of Taste
What is the most integral component of our sense of taste? It’s our sense of smell. If you can’t smell, you basically can’t taste your food. This can lead to food cravings, a lack of satiation, and unsatisfied hunger.
Solutions for Scented Times
The soap provided in most, if not all, of the alternative practitioners’ offices, that I go to is perfumed with artificial fragrance. Even the exercise studios I go to do not provide unscented soap. Because of this, I carry a bottle of hand sanitizer with me.
Traveling Scent Free
When we travel and stay in a rental, I bring my own hand soap, dish soap, dishwasher detergent, shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream, laundry detergent, and cleaning products. This provides my family with a scent free environment.
Why Can’t We Smell Like Humans?
I’m trying to figure out what our cultural obsession is with not smelling like humans –what do you think?
Is Your Home a Scent-Free Zone?
What’s the point of eating all of this organic food while slathering our bodies in layers of chemicals? Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!
HS says
I can’t even take our dogs out if any of the neighbors are doing laundry. The fragrance in their laundry detergent pollutes the whole street. It’s awful.
Elana says
HS, totally agree! The stuff coming out of people’s dryer vents is quite “fragrant”!
LynneDe says
I have multiple chemical sensitivities and asthma also. I had to stop attending worship services due to the scents…colognes, shaving cream, perfumes, hair spray, room freshners, even some stronger flower scents – sweet peas for one…and one time, I went into a supermarket just after the closing of the meat department for the day. They had cleaned with bleach, oh ‘but only a little’, and it was throughout the store…it burned my lungs so badly that it took me over six months to get back to near baseline.
And unscented products often aren’t really. I don’t have the resources to purchase high end ‘natural products’, I’m on disability income and it’s not a lot. Lemon juice is a good cleaner. Baking soda works well too.
No, we aren’t ‘complainers’ when we speak up to others to share our own needs; in reality, we are helping others with their own health even before they realize their need. Blessings!
Elana says
LynneDe, what an amazing comment! I could not have said it better myself: “No, we aren’t ‘complainers’ when we speak up to others to share our own needs; in reality, we are helping others with their own health even before they realize their need.”
Michelle says
I’m not nearly as scent intolerant as some of you make it sound, but I will wake up with a headache, or not sleep well, if I sleep on scented bedding or use scented towels. We travel a lot to stay with family and I cannot get my in-laws to stop using scented laundry detergent. I even bought a giant bottle of the unscented detergent from Costco and left it for them to use, but my mother-in-law still bought and used the smelly stuff.
I pack my own sheets, pillowcases, blanket, bath towels, hand towels, and wash clothes.
At the family cottage, for our bed, I have a complete set of bedding (from mattress pad to quilt and everything in-between) for other guests to use and launder with their detergent.
When my husband and I arrive, I completely strip everything off the bed and put our unscented bedding on. And I put away all the towels in the bathroom and put out our own unscented towels. I also try to keep unscented hand soap and dish soap there.
It is a lot of work to do all this bed changing, let alone all the packing and hauling of it all. Plus I haul a lot of my own food in order to eat right. My husband understands I need to do this, but grumbles about hauling it all.
I know I am healthier and better off for having hauled it all, so it’s worth it to me.
Elana says
Michelle, I do the same. If we stay in a rental I wash all the sheets and towels in non-toxic detergent to try to get as much of the chemical fragrance off as possible :-)
dawn says
Thank you! I’m so glad I’m not the only one sensitive to scented things… Laundry detergent and dryer sheets drive me crazy. I smell it from the nearby laundry mat. And I can smell peoples clothes reek of it. We are scentless. And I’ve been known to wash the “clean” sheets when away from home because it’s too much. People think I’m weird. So many seem clueless of how strong their cloths, perfume, etc.. smell.
Elana says
Dawn, I totally agree!
Krissy says
Unfortunately we are completed inundated with scent and sound, I’m very sensitive to both. EVERYWHERE you go you are forced to smell chemical scents (even neighbors fabric softner) and live with a ton of loudness nearly every place you enter–very frustrating! No one can handle quiet apparenlty, or so they think.
Also everyone look up and see the chemtrails, if you don’t know what they are take the time to research. It is not normal and we are having our plant poisened sadly. It is now being deemed SAI : Stratospheric Aerosol Injection in honor of supposedly stopping global warming–now they admit they are trying to dim the entire plant (even though we are in a cooling cycle for the Earth currently). They are the grids, weird billowing out clouds and X’s we see in the skys. It is not normal airline traffic like they used to claim years ago. Share your knowledge with everyone you know! LOOK UP OFTEN!!
Elana says
Thanks Krissy!
Tatia Veltkamp says
This is so true! I have gotten so much worse in the last 12 months with my chemical sensitivities. I can smell things others aren’t even aware of, and those smells give me a headache or make me cough uncontrollably. But I think that so many people just are not even aware that it affects some people the way it does. I remember in a large ladies Bible study the leader would ask people to not wear perfume or perfumed lotion because it was a serious problem for some people. I remember thinking, how does that bother anyone?! Well, I guess I know now. It’s all about education. There are still so many people who don’t understand what the chemicals are doing to them.
Elana says
Tatia, thanks for your comment! I worry about people like us because these fragrances cause overt symptoms. I worry also about the other people who are slathering these endocrine disrupting, cancer causing chemicals all over their bodies and having no overt reaction, because even though they do not have symptoms, these products are just as toxic to them.
RJ Hirsch says
Thank you so much for this post– and the phrase: ‘Olfactory Trespass.’
It certainly is intrusive.
Walking down the cleaning products aisle is a toxic experience. I shop for our community center, and there are unscented items to buy, and scrubbers, etc. items I need to pick up. And I do want to shop locally. And sometimes it is a rough time, walking down that aisle!
It is hard to think of how hard it must be for you, and others with serious health issues. It is hard to know that many/most households bring these toxic items into their homes.
Having a dishwasher does save water–which is why we have one, or one of the reasons. Finding an unscented dishwasher soap is not easy, especially if trying to avoid overpackaging. For years I was able to buy an unscented dw powder from Tropical Traditions, several pounds at a time in a big jar; then they stopped selling it. Happily, a few months ago I happily found another unscented dw soap: PBW: Powdered Brewery Wash. Apparently items used to make beer can’t be left with lingering chemical scents. So there is an unscented one, also available in bulk— and it has been a great find.
Elana says
RJ, thanks for another fantastic comment and for sharing your finds with us here!
Diane says
If I want a nice smell in my house, it’s going to have to come from something good in the oven, flowers on the table, or cinnamon in a pot on the stove. Scented candles make my sinuses hurt, and my allergy doctor told me to stay away from scents. She said not to use scented chemicals to clean my house. When I was growing up, my mom used Comet in the bathroom and Pledge to polish the furniture. I quit using those types of cleaners even before my doctor told me to, but in my head.. there are those memories associated with those smells…
Elana says
Diane, I could not agree with you more! If I want a nice smell in my house it’s going to be from cookies baking in the oven or something from my garden!
Beth says
Ug, we have scent wars at work. Theoretically we are a scent free workplace but people think scented hand cream is not perfume. It’s WORSE. There are several of us who are sensitive to crappy florals and other chemicals. I got a note from my doc so they HAVE to take it at least a little seriously. And nearly every week, we have to get people to take their stupid scented candles home, and remind them that perfume is perfume, whether it’s in lotion or soap or cream. This makes me so grumpy.
Elana says
Beth, I totally agree with you, scented hand cream is worse. I think it’s because the oils in the cream give the fragrance more staying power, and also because people slather it on all day long. Very frustrating. I’m loving your grumpiness in this comment, and yes, perfume is perfume, whether it’s in lotion, soap, cream or candles. Argh! Thanks for being on this (unscented!) healing journey with me :-)
Geege says
I am so with you here! I bring my own Dr. Bronners liquid hand soap mini when I travel. I tell all my guests I’m allergic to perfume so DON’T WEAR ANY And at my book club meeting I ask for no candles please. We look like crabby people but we do have a right to our air being chemical free. Thank you for a great article!
Elana says
Geege, you said it so well, “We do have a right to our air being chemical free!”