(NaturalHealth365) Health and beauty products including shampoos, conditioners, makeup, and, most of all, fragrances of any kind are loaded with thousands of toxic chemicals, and America has banned only 9 of these from public use, even though 40 other countries have banned some 1,300 or more chemicals from their products.  Why?

Indeed, fragrances contain some of the most dangerous toxins to human health – and why use them, really, when there are healthy alternatives we can use to scent our homes and the air about us that do not endanger our health or the health of the planet?

Why would flammable ingredients and formaldehyde be inside “beauty” products?

Fragrances, whether found in perfumes, dish detergent, or air fresheners, typically contain some of the most dangerous and flammable ingredients known to mankind.

Some of the big baddies in terms of chemicals are propane, butane, 1, 4-di-chloro-benzene (1,4-DCB), a proven carcinogen, benzene (a known cause of leukemia), formaldehyde (a well-known cause of respiratory cancers in humans), plus too many other chemicals that are not disclosed to the public or researched for their toxic effects on humans.

One of the most shocking ingredients in air fresheners and”plug-ins” is naphthalene,  a dangerous chemical found chiefly in mothballs and banned from the EU back in 2009.  Naphthalene is known to cause aplastic anemia, hemolytic anemia, retinal hemorrhage, cataracts, and is strongly linked to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Synthetic “fragrances” are some of the worst inventions on the planet.  They are linked to a long list of frightening health risks, including its neurotoxicity – which can trigger respiratory illnesses of all kinds, including asthma. They are also known hormone disrupting agents that can cause a long list of hormone-based cancers, from breast to prostate cancer.

How can this be legal?

Supposedly, the United States requires full disclosure of fragrance ingredients if they are used in cosmetics. Really?

Well, because fragrance formulas are classified as “trade secrets,” individual components within the fragrance do not have to be disclosed.  So either way, we are subjected to an onslaught of harmful chemicals no matter what kind of fragrance product we are using.  Keep in mind, those air “fresheners” are completely unregulated.

So, what are some of the more dangerous chemicals in fragrance?

The biggest offenders in fragrance today are:

Phthalates: Fragrances contain harmful chemical called phthalates that act as preservatives, helping perfumes and colognes stay on the shelves longer. These phthalates cause numerous deadly health problems including endocrine disruption, decreased sperm motility, respiratory problems, birth defects, low birth weight, premature birth, miscarriage, and damaging children’s IQ in the womb.

Parabens: Parabens like phthalates are preservatives that prevent molds in cosmetics. They have a long list of negative health impacts, but most of all, they’re highly estrogenic, meaning they can cause estrogen-based cancers including breast, prostate, and endometrial cancer.

Styrenes: Styrene is used to make a wide variety of products, including fragrance. Styrene is also in cigarette smoke and auto exhaust. It is a known carcinogen.

Synthetic Musks: Synthetic musks, including nitro-musks and polycyclic musks have been linked to cancer and harm to the nervous and reproductive systems.

Healthy alternatives to dangerous synthetic chemicals in fragrance

The good news is that it’s easy to scent your home naturally. It’s called natural aromatherapy.

For natural aromatherapy, you’ll need some 100% pure essential oils like lavender pure essential oil, lemon, orange, or grapefruit essential oil, eucalyptus pure essential oil, or rose pure essential oil – these are just some of the delicious scents you can buy at a low cost.

These wonderful scents not only make your home smell great, they also improve human health with plant compounds like antioxidants and other constituents that can benefit health in a long list of ways from helping to ease harmful stress levels to helping to detoxify the home of viruses and bacteria.

Think tea tree oil.

You can use these pure essential oils in a environmentally safe (meaning, no plastic!) diffuser, dab them on light bulbs, or you can blend them with water and spray them about your home as a natural air freshener.

You can also try spraying the fresh scents of lemon and water or pure lavender and rose oil onto fans and then let those scents go about the room.  Another great trick is boiling homemade potpourri on the stove, which means basically some orange peel and cinnamon steeped in water.

Bottom line: we don’t need the chemicals when we have such a great alternatives.

Sources of this article include:

EWG.org
TheGuardian.org
EWG.org
NIH.gov
NIH.gov
NIH.gov
NIH.gov
EPA.gov
EnvironmentalHealthJournal.com
NIH.gov
EPA.gov