Fragrance cause Health and Environmental Issues

Fragrance is a part of our daily life. It is found in perfumes, laundry detergents, room fresheners, soaps, deodorants. All of them contain some chemical compounds which are causing major health problems. However, the use of scents is not new in our life. It has been in our lifestyle since thousands of years. But the health problems due to the fragrance are comparatively new.

The main reason behind the increasing health problems due to fragrance is that in the ancient time perfumes/scents were made from the natural ingredients. But now the vast quantities of the scents are made from the chemicals like acetone, acetophenone, ethyl acetate to meet the increasing demands and off course due to its affordability.  Making scents from chemicals are cheaper and less time consuming than extracting it from the natural resources.

Most of the chemicals used in making scents are petroleum products which are proved as one of the reason of increasing health hazards like birth disorders, disorders of nervous system and even disease like cancer. Chemicals can also lead to may allergic reactions on the skin. Those who have very sensitive skin are more vulnerable to have rashes, dermatitis, eczema, etc with the use of perfumes and other products that contain chemicals that is not agreeable to your skin. There are many people who are so hyper sensitive to certain perfumes that even the sniff can cause shortness of breath, rapid breathing, heart beat and many other reactions.

Synthetic musks are very largely in use to cover the unpleasant smell of the laundry detergent and many other cleaning products. These are very cheap and it is so largely in use that recently it has been found in human fat and milk. The sediments of the synthetic musks are also found in the water of the Great Lakes. This can cause health as well as environmental issues when they enter into the body of living beings.

The companies that uses fragrant in their product do not give all the listings of their products to the FDA to protect their trade secret. Hence, there can be many companies who might be using many toxic chemicals regardless of their effects on the health.

Due to the increasing allergic reactions of perfumes many companies have the fragrance free environment. They restrict their employees on wearing any type of fragrance which may induce the health problems to their hyper sensitive colleagues. Such companies also use only the fragrance free cleaning products at their janitorial services.

Even the use of natural ingredients in fragrance is causing the environmental issues. There is an increasing demand for the aromatic materials like sandalwood, agarwood, musks etc which has led to the endangerment of these species. Illegal trafficking and harvesting of many species has become the common practice.

The emerging concerns about the use of synthetic fragrance in the products are not properly handled by any industry. There is a need of a system in place where the adverse effects can be reported and evaluated. There should be some testing procedures in the company to chalk out all routes causing adverse effects of health and environment due to the use of various chemicals.

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