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Scented products are everywhere. Walk down the shampoo aisle in your local supermarket and the flowery fragrance is hard to miss. Shampoo, lotion, cosmetics, air fresheners, and even cleaners all can contain added ‘fragrance’. Did you know that fragrances can be made up of more than 100 chemicals, all of which are kept secret by manufacturers? Some of these hidden ingredients are known to trigger allergic reactions in sensitive people.
The solution is simple
If fragrance ingredients were simply listed on the product label, a consumer could avoid many of these adverse reactions.
Right now, consumers have no way of avoiding allergens or other chemicals in fragranced products because most companies keep fragrance ingredients a secret — labels will simply say “fragrance” instead of listing out the ingredients.
Our friends at Women’s Voices for the Earth are once again [2] releasing an important report today, Secret Scents: How Hidden Fragrance Allergens Harm Public Health [3]. In the report and as shown in the infographic below they discuss the widespread impact of fragrance allergies—what they look like, why women and children are more impacted, and why companies should be disclosing fragrance ingredients in their products.
Please note this graphic focuses on allergy, but allergy is not the only health problem linked to fragrance. Neurotoxic effects, respiratory effects, immune system impacts and others are also associated with fragrance and deserve greater investigation and attention than they have received.
Here’s what you can do right now to avoid allergens in scented products
- Buy from companies that disclose all ingredients
- Ask companies that don’t disclose their ingredients to change their policy
- Take action! Tell the fragrance industry to stop keeping fragrance ingredients a secret!
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If you want to read the full report head on over to Women’s Voices for the Earth [3].