Air Fresheners, Are Really Good?
If you believe the commercials that frequently populate the airwaves, air fresheners can make your whole home smell like a bed of roses. They will make your family happy and your dog smell good and you can leave rotten fish and meat in your trash for days on end. Your need to do any and all housework suddenly vanishes when you own an air freshener and your house will be the social hub of the neighborhood. Think again.
Take Care of the Actual Problem First
Air fresheners have been designed to cover up the odor of chores that need to be done. Rotten meat will smell when t decomposes. Moldy smells indicate a mold problem. Stinky gym shoes need to be washed. No amount of air freshening products will change these simple facts.
If you find yourself always buying an air freshener or if you have one always plugged in several rooms of the house, consider why you are using them. Do you simply like the smell of fragrance throughout the home? Or are you trying to cover the odor of a problem? If you are trying to cover up a foul odor, you would probably be better off taking care of the problem for many health and safety reasons. Dogs need to be bathed, not only for odor control, but also for basic health and hygiene issues. Diapers need to be thrown out regularly, considering the waste that is in them! A funky smell coming from the vents in a certain room of your house needs to be investigated to make sure it is not a serious health hazard.
What Makes the Smell
A majority of air fresheners on the market today use artificial or synthetic fragrances in the product to give off a certain smell. After all, it is hard to actually capture the natural essence on a “summer rain” or “sunny day” smell, isn’t it? The term “artificial fragance” is not just one chemical used to scent a product. Fragrance is a generic term that is used to identify the presence of up to 3,194 ingredients that have been bended together to make one scent. You have no idea what chemical have been used to create an “artificial fragrance”, and by law, the manufacturers do not have to tell you. Yet consumers willingly pollute their indoor air with these unknown offenders on a daily basis.
A More Natural Fragrance
There is nothing wrong with wanting a pleasantly scented home. There are times when air fresheners are actually warranted. Like when you are trying to hide the smells of a recipe gone wrong or cover up the lingering effects of skunk smell that just doesn’t seem to want to leave your dog. You will want to make sure that the ingredients of that fragance, though, comes directly from the source, instead of a lab. For instance, why not just get the actual scent of a real-life rose or a pine tree, instead of an artificially created one?
Before switching fragances, firt eliminate the synthetic kinds. Get rid any air fresheners in your home made with artificial fragances, including plug-in units (with or without a night-light), stick units, sprays (including fabric fresheners), sneaker balls, hanging deodorizers in the closets or basement, trash can deodorizes (including scent trash can bags), as well as artificially fragranced diaper-pail deodorizers. Open the windows in your home and really air the palce out for at least several hours, if not for a few days. Take care of the source of odors in your home.
If you do like a fragrance in your home, choose products made entirely from essentials oils. Beware of imitators that might say their product contains essentials oils. Look for a product made only with 100% essential oil fragrance.
Air Fresheners, Are Really Good?
No Natural Air Fresheners, according to the EPA1, contains four basic ingredients: formaldehyde, petroleum distillates, aerosol propellants, and p-dichlorobenzene.
Formaldehyde can cause a number of health effects including:
- Watery eyes
- Burning eye, nose, throat and other mucous membranes
- Difficulty breathing
- Nausea
- Asthma attacks
Petroleum distillates come from petrochemical manufacturing, which contribute to air, soil, and groundwater pollution. The effects on human health include:
- Respiratory problems
- Asthma
- Chemical pneumonia
- Pulmonary damage
Aerosol propellants can harm earth’s ozone layer. Likewise, they can damage human health including:
- Increased cancer risk
- Breathing problems
- Development of chronic health issues
Paradichlorobenzene (p-DCB) is often found in mothballs and may cause:
- Anemia
- Skin lesions
- Liver damage
- Loss of appetite
- Changes to the blood
Of course, air fresheners also contain fragrance, often in the form of perfumed chemicals.
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