Before I go to sleep at night I like to read for a little bit as a way to relax. I used to watch TV but lately I find that this will often have the opposite effect on me, causing me to stay up late into the night and wake up bleary-eyed the next day.

Last night I reached for a magazine that my husband gets as a free subscription from his health club. The main featured article after “Let’s Play: Inspiring Ideas for Making Fitness Fun” was “The Problem With Perfume: Why Artificial Fragrances are a Growing Health Concern” written by Kristin Ohlson. Obviously this was something I needed to read. Though I wouldn’t exactly call myself a health fanatic, I am very health conscious and try to avoid or really limit things that I know to be unhealthy. It crossed my mind that I had recently written about essential oils and using scent to improve your well-being but had in NO WAY meant that aromatherapy is preferable to perfume. They are two very different animals.

I am convinced that essential oils used in aromatherapy (the real kind, not the many synthetic ones out there) contain many therapeutic properties which can be used to treat common ailments such as insomnia, depression and anxiety. In addition, some can actually encourage happiness and improve mental efficiency. I tend to think of essential oils as a natural way to improve my state of well-being.

Perfume is something I love because it makes me happy and it enchants me. It is an adventure as well as a journey. When wearing a perfume that I love, it makes me feel different and always in a positive way. Although it’s always nice to get compliments on the way I smell, I wear perfume for myself not for the benefit of others…

So being curious, I dug into the article…”Artificial fragrances are everywhere – and they can pose significant threats to your health.” The article continued to make various claims about the toxicity of perfume whose “potential toxicity can undermine our best efforts to guard our health and that of our loved ones.” It went on to say that “synthetic scents are part of the air that we all breathe” (true) and that we are often ambushed by them outside of the home. It went on to list some bizarre examples. Apparently, some bus-shelter ads are apparently imbued with the scent of chocolate chip cookies and some pacifiers are scented with vanilla. There are shoe laces sold that smell like cherries and you can buy bacon-scented kitty litter. Bacon scented kitty litter? Really???

Featured in the article was Jon Whelan, director of the documentary Stink!, which premiered in 2015. Whelan’s film details his quest to learn more about the chemicals used in scented pajamas he had ordered for his tween daughter from the retail chain Justice. He spent four years working on the movie, starting with phone calls made to Justice and eventually ending up with hearings between chemical industry lobbyists and legislators over whether or not the public has a right to know which chemicals are in their products.

Among the things that he learned was that even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for regulating the safety of personal care products, they aren’t allowed to ask companies about fragrance chemicals. Why not? The answer is the result of outdated laws. When legislators passed the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act of 1973, regulations included a loophole for fragrance. This loophole protected perfume manufacturers whose unique formulas were at the heart of their business.

As it currently stands, oversight of perfume manufacturers is carried out by the International Fragrance Association (IFRA) who conduct their own safety studies. In effect, the fragrance industry regulates itself.

This was not news to me but I’ve never found this to be alarming.

Ms. Ohlson then went on to expound on the dangers of phthalates, a class of chemical that are a common component of most perfumes. Phthalates are widely used in fragrance because they make smells last. Genuine essential oils, on he other hand, don’t contain phthalates and have a much shorter scent life span.

Phthalates are also present in many non-perfume items such as plastic water bottles, cosmetics, spices, plastic toys, foods and unfiltered water. Those most at-risk for the adverse side-effects from exposure to phthalates are pregnant women and boys.

Almost all of us have traces of phthalates in our bodies. There is very little consensus from what I’ve read elsewhere on the substance about how dangerous they really are. The EPA has added some phthalates to their “Chemicals of Concern” list, meaning the agency will keep a close watch on the chemicals. My guess is that some people are much more sensitive to exposure to phthalates than others.

The second half of the article centers around fragrance-contact allergies. Ms. Ohlson writes that up to 11% of people are now sensitive or allergic to fragrance and it has become a global health problem. This actually got a chuckle out of me because when I think of all the global health problems we are facing, perfume allergies don’t even come close to making the list.

I am not disputing that this type of allergy exists at all; in fact I am sure that some people experience distressful symptoms when exposed to  perfumes. Someone who is highly sensitive to perfume may sneeze or get a rash when encountering a fragrance while someone who is truly allergic might actually have a full-blown reaction that involves the immune system. People can become allergic to just about anything including their pets and their own spouses.

Call me a fatalist but I have no plans to change my fragrance loving life. I’ll revisit this topic if I ever develop perfume sensitivity but until then I plan on happily sampling and sniffing my way through perfume land.

If you have any thoughts or opinions on the perfume controversy I’d love to hear from you…

Ciao for now!