Every fact on this site, with its evidence grade, its caveats, and a link to the source.
We start you on the strong ones: findings that have been replicated or come from one large, well-controlled study. Moderate and weak facts are here too, labeled for what they are. Use “Link to this fact” to share a single card.
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
Fragrance contact allergy is not rare in children: in a study of 1200 Danish school children aged 12-16, 1.6% of girls and 2.1% of boys tested positive to the fragrance mix, and one in three of them already had clinical symptoms.
Moderate evidence: Single study (secondary citation); the primary (Mortz 2002) is not yet in our evidence base.
Source: Johansen 2003, Am J Clin Dermatol 4(11):789-798, American Journal of Clinical Dermatology Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Review of other studies
Children have required hospitalization for severe allergic reactions to hair dyes (paraphenylenediamine).
Moderate evidence: Relayed from a single case series (Sosted et al. 2006, 8 children).
Source: Brasch 2007, Current Opinion in Allergy and Clinical Immunology Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Review of other studies
Newborn infants placed on the mother's stomach spontaneously crawl toward the breast guided by smell (and do not do so if the areolas are washed), and even formula-fed infants prefer the odor of a lactating breast, suggesting the preference is innate rather than learned.
Moderate evidence: Small experimental studies from the 1990s cited secondhand; not this review's own data.
Source: Kippenberger 2012, Experimental Dermatology Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
Only 49 of 230 baby-specific cosmetic products (21.3%) registered through a Danish consumer app in 2015-16 were labeled to contain fragrance, the lowest fragranced rate of the 15 product categories studied; most of the fragranced ones (41 of 49) were leave-on products (creams, lotions, oils, wet wipes).
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Self-selected, safety-conscious app-user sample in one country and one year window; a later, larger Danish registry of the same app found 38.0% of baby-care products fragranced, and a US label survey found about 48%, so this figure should not be generalized as 'the' baby-product fragranced rate.
Source: Bennike 2017/2018 Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Review of other studies
This report names pregnant and breastfeeding women, young children, teenagers, and cancer patients on anti-cancer treatment as groups who should be protected from continuous EDC exposure, because EDCs can cross the placenta and pass into breast milk.
Moderate evidence: No perfume-specific dose or exposure data for these populations is given.
Source: Tegengif 2022 Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
In FDA's 2010 follow-up survey, 5 of 24 baby-care products (shampoos, body washes, creams, lotions, and oils) contained diethyl phthalate (DEP), at levels up to 274 ug/g — the only phthalate ester found in any baby-care product tested.
Moderate evidence: N=24 baby-care products from one FDA survey; no infant absorbed-dose or health-outcome data were collected.
Source: Hubinger 2010, Journal of Cosmetic Science Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Government agency
Exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals during fetal development, infancy, and puberty can permanently reprogram how tissues develop, with effects that may not become visible until years or decades later; children are considered the most vulnerable population because of their hand-to-mouth behavior and higher metabolic rate.
Moderate evidence: This is the report's general developmental-programming framework, illustrated mainly with lead, PCBs, DES, and pesticides, not with fragrance chemicals.
Source: WHO/UNEP 2012 Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Government agency
The European Commission's 2018 endocrine disruptor framework names fetal development and puberty as the exposure periods of greatest concern, stating that exposure during these windows may cause permanent effects and raise disease susceptibility later in life.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
This restates the 2012 UNEP/WHO consensus report rather than presenting new data of its own; the underlying 'no safe threshold'/non-monotonic dose-response evidence behind that consensus is itself disputed by a later industry-funded critique (see the WHO/UNEP 2012 source page).
Source: EU Commission 2018 Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Animal study
In mice, a single prenatal dose of the plasticizer DEHP to a pregnant female can alter reproductive traits (puberty timing, ovarian follicle numbers, fertility, reproductive aging) not just in her directly exposed pups, but in her never-exposed great-grandpups (the F3 generation), an effect attributed to epigenetic changes carried through the germline.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Animal (mouse and rat) evidence only; most positive DEHP transgenerational findings come from one research group (the reviewing authors' own lab), and some effective doses were well above estimated daily human DEHP exposure (~3-30 micrograms/kg/day).
Children and pregnancy / Animal study
Diethyl phthalate (DEP), the phthalate used as a fragrance solvent and fixative in colognes, perfumes, and nail polish, has never been tested alone for transgenerational (multi-generation) reproductive effects; the only relevant animal study exposed pregnant mice to a five-phthalate mixture that was 35% DEP, and could not separate DEP's contribution from the other four phthalates.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
The mixture's effective doses ranged from about 200 micrograms/kg/day (near the paper's own DEP human-exposure estimate of 2.32-12 micrograms/kg/day) up to 500 milligrams/kg/day (occupational or medical-device range), so it does not establish an effect at typical consumer exposure.
Children and pregnancy / Review of other studies
Higher urinary BPA is linked to childhood and adolescent obesity in several large NHANES-based US studies; in one, children in the highest quarter of urinary BPA had more than double the odds of obesity of children in the lowest quarter.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Not all cohorts replicate this: a prospective study of 212 children found no association between urinary BPA and later body composition, and race-specific effects (seen in Whites but not Blacks or Hispanics in one NHANES analysis) suggest the association is not uniform.
Source: Dalamaga 2024, International Journal of Molecular Sciences Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Review of other studies
Before the 2010s, essentially every cosmetic-safety exposure estimate for adults rested on just two large industry-run studies — one European, one American — and there was no published consumption or exposure data at all for babies, children, adolescents, or pregnant women; that gap only started closing in the last decade.
Moderate evidence: A single review's characterization of the literature, not a primary measurement; two of its four authors work for a cosmetics manufacturer (Pierre Fabre).
Source: Ficheux 2019, systematic review of 82 studies, 2000-Feb 2018, Food and Chemical Toxicology Industry-funded Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Review of other studies
The Endocrine Society's 2025 position statement calls for EDC regulations to be designed to protect the most vulnerable populations, explicitly naming fetuses, children, pregnant women, and adolescents, because critical developmental windows such as fetal development and infancy affect vulnerability to EDC effects on later-life outcomes.
Moderate evidence: A general policy recommendation across all EDC-containing product categories, not specific to cosmetics or fragrance exposure.
Source: Endocrine Society 2025 Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Review of other studies
Human cohort studies summarized in a 2017 review link prenatal and childhood phthalate exposure to poorer childhood executive function, attention, aggression, depression, and ADHD diagnosis/severity.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Associations across several different human cohorts (ages 4-15 depending on study), not a single unified study; phthalate exposure measured was from all sources (diet, plastics, personal care), not fragrance specifically; the reproductive/fertility part of the video's claim is separately and more strongly supported by an existing evidence base claim for DEHP/DBP specifically (c-f0411e8eb5, Radke 2018 US EPA systematic review, 'strong' evidence for lower sperm quality and shorter anogenital distance), not by this neurotoxicity review. 'Skeletal growth' specifically is not addressed by any source currently in our evidence base (only a secondhand, unconfirmed link between DEHP and lower IGF-I/height in Danish boys was flagged by the original research pass, not independently verified here).
Source: Kanwal 2017 review, citing Engel 2010, Cho 2010, Kim 2009, Park 2015, Environmental Research Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Review of other studies
Phthalates such as DEHP are not chemically bound to PVC medical devices, so they continuously leach out of them; the US FDA issued a public health warning about DEHP in medical devices in 2001, and NICU neonates can receive DEHP exposure up to 20 times the tolerable daily intake from medical devices.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
The review describes 'medical devices' generally, of which PVC IV tubing and blood bags are the classic DEHP-plasticized examples, but does not itself name 'IV tubing' or 'blister medication packaging' specifically, nor does it quantify leaching directly into the bloodstream during an infusion. NICU neonates are the most intensively studied, highest-exposure population — this figure should not be generalized to routine adult outpatient IV use without further support.
Source: Latini/Italian review 2006, Toxicology Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
In a US cohort, phthalates measured in mothers' urine during pregnancy were associated with poorer executive function and more aggressive and depressive-type behavior in their children ages 4-9 (Engel 2010).
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Single cohort study; children were ages 4-9, not 5-9 as the video states; urine was measured from mothers generally during pregnancy, and this review does not specify third-trimester timing specifically; phthalate exposure was from all sources (diet, plastics, personal care), not fragrance specifically. The review reports Engel 2010's attention-related finding as not statistically significant (per the original research pass on this item). Separately, the 'later elevated ADHD symptoms' link comes from different cohorts (Cho 2010, Kim 2009, Park 2015) that measured children's OWN urine at ages 6-15, not their mothers' third-trimester urine — the video conflates two distinct sets of studies into one.
Source: Engel 2010, cited in Kanwal 2017 review, Environmental Research Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
In a study of 36 Swedish breastfeeding mothers, those who used a triclosan-containing toothpaste, soap, or deodorant had significantly higher triclosan in both their blood plasma and their breast milk than mothers who did not (median plasma 16 vs. 0.072 ng/g, milk 0.54 vs. 0.019 ng/g; p<0.001).
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Single-cohort, single-country study; one small earlier study from an overlapping author group (Sandborgh-Englund 2006, n=10) found no group difference, likely due to being underpowered.
Source: Allmyr 2006, Science of The Total Environment Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
Modeled triclosan intake for a breastfeeding infant via breast milk (roughly 11-570 ng/day for a 4 kg infant) is far smaller than the mother's own systemic dose, suggesting direct skin contact with triclosan products may matter more for infant exposure than breast milk.
Moderate evidence: This is a modeled estimate from milk concentrations, not a directly measured infant dose or health outcome; no infant health outcome was assessed in this study.
Source: Allmyr 2006, Science of The Total Environment Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
In a UK cohort of 1,303 infants (the EAT study), each additional weekly infant moisturizer application at 3 months of age was associated with an 18-20% higher adjusted odds of developing challenge-confirmed food allergy by age 3 (adjusted OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.13-1.27).
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Single observational cohort; moisturizer frequency is parent-reported and not randomized, so confounding by indication (e.g., subclinical dry skin) cannot be fully excluded, though sensitivity analyses reduced this concern.
Source: Perkin 2021 (EAT cohort), Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
The moisturizer-frequency/food-allergy association held both in infants with visible eczema at 3 months (adjusted OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.11-1.31) and in infants with no visible eczema at all (adjusted OR 1.18, 95% CI 1.07-1.30), and survived a reverse-causation sensitivity analysis that excluded infants with any parent-reported history of eczema or dry skin (adjusted OR 1.16, 95% CI 1.01-1.33).
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Adjusted for study group, sex, siblings, family eczema history, ethnicity, eczema severity (SCORAD), filaggrin mutation status and TEWL, but exposure is still self-reported and non-randomized.
Source: Perkin 2021 (EAT cohort), Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
In the same cohort, bathing frequency at 3 months — despite being strongly correlated with moisturizing frequency — showed no association with later food allergy (adjusted OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.83-1.08), unlike moisturizing frequency itself.
Moderate evidence: A negative-control comparison within one cohort; does not rule out that bathing and moisturizing share some unmeasured common cause.
Source: Perkin 2021 (EAT cohort), Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
Olive oil was the single most commonly used infant moisturizer in this UK cohort, in both infants with visible eczema (18.2%) and without (23.1%), consistent with a UK maternity-unit survey in which most units recommending oil for baby skincare recommended olive oil specifically; none of the top-20 products used contained trilipid/ceramide ingredients.
Moderate evidence: Product-name self-report; brand/product list is UK-specific (2009-2012) and may not generalize to other countries or eras.
Source: Perkin 2021 (EAT cohort), Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
In a Japanese RCT of 118 neonates at high familial risk of atopic dermatitis, daily whole-body application of a fragrance-free emollient (2e emulsion) from the first week of life reduced eczema/AD by 32 weeks: 19/59 (32.2%) in the emollient group vs 28/59 (47.5%) in the control group, hazard ratio 0.48 (95% CI 0.27-0.86; log-rank P=.012).
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Single-center Japanese trial, one specific commercial product, infants selected for family history of AD; the much larger BEEP RCT (n=1,394, a different emollient) did not replicate this eczema-prevention effect.
Source: Horimukai et al. 2014, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Industry-funded Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
Pregnant French women used more cosmetics than non-pregnant women across the board — 104 of 139 surveyed products reached at least 10% use among pregnant women, versus 88 among non-pregnant women — and shifted markedly toward baby-care products before the birth: 50% used anti-stretch-mark cream (vs. 6% of non-pregnant women), and about 1 in 5 already used baby shampoo or baby shower gel (vs. 5-6% of non-pregnant women).
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Single study, self-report, French-only; pregnant women were deliberately oversampled (8% of the adult-women sample vs. the true ~3% French rate), which does not bias the within-group percentages but means absolute national totals should not be read off this sample directly.
Source: Ficheux et al. 2015, Food and Chemical Toxicology Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
French adult women reported using an average of 16 cosmetic products a day (up to 31 for the heaviest 5% of users); French men averaged 8 a day — both well above the only prior figure available, a 2004 US industry survey finding 12/day for women and 6/day for men.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
The two surveys used different methods, countries and a decade apart; higher product counts in the French study could reflect more product categories studied (139 vs. the earlier survey's narrower list) rather than a true rise in use.
Source: Ficheux et al. 2015, Food and Chemical Toxicology Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
In an independent, French government-funded study of 18,292 people, girls aged 10-14 had the highest modeled conditioner exposure of any group studied: their 90th-percentile exposure (1.78 mg/kg bw/day) was 3 times higher than the EU safety committee's (SCCS) own reference value, and 45% of French girls in that age group exceeded the SCCS's reference value entirely.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Single study; exposure is modeled (mg/kg bw/day) from self-reported frequency and a separately-collected amount-per-use dataset, not directly measured internal dose; not yet independently replicated outside France.
Source: Ficheux et al. 2016 (exposure assessment), Food and Chemical Toxicology Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
Pregnant women had the single highest modeled exposure of any group studied for dry shampoo (90th percentile 10.24 mg/kg bw/day, 95th percentile 15.19 mg/kg bw/day), but were the least-exposed group for styling lacquer and styling wax — pregnancy changed which hair products carried the most exposure, not just how much.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Amount-per-use data specific to pregnant women were too sparse (only 5 of 844 face-to-face survey participants were pregnant) to model separately, so non-pregnant women's amount-per-use data were substituted into the pregnant-women exposure calculation; only frequency of use and body weight were pregnancy-specific inputs.
Source: Ficheux et al. 2016 (exposure assessment), Food and Chemical Toxicology Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
In the same trial, infants given daily preventive emollient had a nonsignificant increase in confirmed food allergy to milk, egg, or peanut at age 2 (7% vs 5%, adjusted RR 1.47, 95% CI 0.93-2.33) and food sensitization (12% vs 9%, adjusted RR 1.36, 95% CI 0.94-1.95), measured by oral food challenge (21 of 70 cases) or a masked expert panel using a validated EAT-trial-derived algorithm (49 of 70 cases).
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Neither the food-allergy nor the sensitization result reached statistical significance; the trial was powered to detect an eczema effect, not a food-allergy effect, so it is likely underpowered for this secondary outcome.
Source: Chalmers et al. 2020 (BEEP trial), The Lancet Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
French parents applied just as much eau de toilette/perfume to babies aged 0-3 per application (mean 370 mg, 95th percentile 695 mg, n=48) as adults applied to themselves (mean 254-262 mg, 95th percentile 586-617 mg) — and nearly a quarter (24%) of parents sprayed it directly onto the baby's skin rather than only onto clothing.
Moderate evidence: Small baby subgroup (n=48); amount reflects supervised single-application weighing, not habitual daily practice.
Source: Ficheux et al. 2016 (amount data), Food and Chemical Toxicology Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
In a study of 163 US infants, mothers' use of baby lotion on their infant in the past day was associated with 80% higher levels of MEP, the breakdown product of the fragrance solvent diethyl phthalate (DEP), in the infant's urine.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Single cohort, n=163, mostly white (80%) and privately insured (79%) US families recruited 2000-2005; product phthalate content was not measured directly, only inferred from adult personal-care-product literature.
Source: Sathyanarayana et al. 2008, Pediatrics Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
The association between baby lotion use and combined urinary phthalate metabolite levels in infants was about 3.7 times stronger in infants 8 months old or younger than in older infants.
Moderate evidence: Small younger-infant subgroup (n=42) with a wide confidence interval; single cohort.
Source: Sathyanarayana et al. 2008, Pediatrics Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
Infants exposed to more baby care products (lotion, shampoo, powder) had progressively higher combined phthalate metabolite levels: about 60% higher with one product used in the past day, roughly doubled with two, and nearly 5-fold higher with three.
Moderate evidence: "Number of products" counts product types used, not amount applied; amount of product used was not quantified in this study.
Source: Sathyanarayana et al. 2008, Pediatrics Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
In 20 Korean mothers, the synthetic musk fragrance chemical galaxolide (HHCB) was found in 70% of umbilical cord blood samples, often at levels higher than in the mother's own blood, pointing to the placenta, not just breast milk, as a route by which fragrance musks reach a baby.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Single Korean cohort, n=20 cord sera (17 complete mother-infant-milk triads); the authors call it a preliminary study. No product-use data collected, so the exposure source (cosmetics, laundry, etc.) is inferred, not measured. The paper's own text and its own table/summary numbers disagree on whether maternal or cord serum is higher, though both clearly exceed breast milk.
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
Galaxolide (HHCB) was found in all 17 Korean breast milk samples tested, but at levels 2 to 10 times lower than in the same mothers' blood serum.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
N=17 breast milk samples, one Korean cohort; no health outcome measured; HHCB levels did not correlate across maternal serum, cord serum and breast milk in the same mothers (Spearman p>0.3).
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
Musk-ketone was found more often than musk-xylene in Korean mothers' breast milk (65% vs. 53%), the same pattern seen in US mothers' milk and the opposite of the pattern seen in Swedish and German mothers' milk.
Moderate evidence: Small sample (n=17 breast milk); the US/Europe regional-pattern explanation is the interpretation of the Swedish authors (Lignell 2008), not directly tested by this paper.
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
In 42 Chinese mother-infant pairs, synthetic musk fragrance chemicals (especially galaxolide/HHCB) were found in 95% of 126 paired maternal blood, umbilical cord blood, and breast milk samples.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
One city (Shanghai), 2007 samples, n=42 pairs; no product-use data; no health outcome; detection rates in blood were much lower (12-18 of 42) than in milk (41/42), limiting precision for the blood matrices.
Source: Zhang 2015, International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
Musk fragrance levels in a newborn's own umbilical cord blood were higher than in the mother's blood, showing these scent chemicals cross the placenta before birth and can accumulate more in the fetus than in the mother.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Median total musk (ng/g lipid weight): cord serum 87.3 vs maternal serum 71.2 in this 42-pair Shanghai cohort; independently matches the direction (not the magnitude) found in a separate 20-pair South Korean cohort (Kang 2010), though Kang 2010's own paper is internally inconsistent about this direction in its prose vs its own tables.
Source: Zhang 2015, International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
The ratio of a common fragrance musk chemical (HHCB/galaxolide) in cord blood versus the mother's blood was consistently and significantly above 1, which does not match what simple passive diffusion across the placenta would predict, hinting at an active or facilitated transfer process that is not yet understood.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Based on 17-40 valid paired samples (after excluding non-detects and statistical outliers) from one 42-pair Shanghai cohort; no transporter or protein-binding mechanism was directly tested; the authors call their own suggestion preliminary.
Source: Zhang 2015, International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Measured in people or real products
Perfume, air fresheners, and dryer sheets carried the highest levels of fragrance chemicals and the phthalate DEP; the pooled perfume sample was 1.4% DEP by weight.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Single pooled composite per category (Dodson 2012). The perfume DEP level is now independently supported by two other labs: FDA's Hubinger & Havery 2006 measured 0.55-3.9% DEP in individual fragrance products, and Health Canada's Koniecki 2011 (n=252, the largest of the three) measured DEP up to 2.6% in 70% of 30 fragrance products — three independent labs across two countries now bracket Dodson's 1.4% figure for perfume specifically. The air-freshener and dryer-sheet parts still rest on Dodson alone (Koniecki tested only cosmetic/personal-care products, no air fresheners or dryer sheets), so the combined claim stays moderate.
Source: Dodson 2012, Environmental Health Perspectives Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Measured in people or real products
A lab analysis of 59 soaps, surface cleaners, laundry and dish-washing products from four European countries found the citrus-scent chemical limonene in 78% of them, linalool in 61%, and citronellol in 47%; all three are fragrance chemicals linked to skin allergy.
Moderate evidence: Products c. 2000, EU only; parent terpenes measured, not the allergenic oxidized forms; Unilever co-author.
Source: Rastogi 2001, Contact Dermatitis Industry-funded Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Measured in people or real products
Women who had used perfume in the previous day had nearly 3 times as much of a phthalate breakdown product (from diethyl phthalate, a chemical used to carry fragrance) in their urine as women who hadn't.
Moderate evidence: Single spot urine, 337 mostly white educated women; replicated by Braun 2014.
Source: Parlett 2013, Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Measured in people or real products
The more personal care products a woman used, the higher her levels of diethyl phthalate; deodorant (2.8x), nail polish (2.1x) and hair spray (1.8x) users also had higher levels.
Moderate evidence: Cross-sectional association; one urine sample.
Source: Parlett 2013, Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Self-reported survey
99.1% of US adults said they are exposed to fragranced products at least once a week, from their own use, other people's, or both.
Moderate evidence: Self-reported exposure; weak dose proxy; adults 18-65.
Source: Steinemann 2016, Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Review of other studies
In California's 1997 inventory, air fresheners were the single largest category of cleaning-product chemical emissions: 7.5 metric tons a day, just ahead of general-purpose cleaners.
Moderate evidence: 1997 sales-based inventory; later SoCAB inventory had air fresheners <2.5 t/d.
Source: Nazaroff & Weschler 2004, Atmospheric Environment Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Review of other studies
Of 83 chemicals the EPA had flagged as priorities for safety review (TSCA Work Plan), 65 (over 80%) were known to be in consumer products.
Moderate evidence: Not fragrance-specific.
Source: Goldsmith 2014, Food and Chemical Toxicology Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Self-reported survey
99.3% of UK adults are exposed to fragranced products every week, and 89% through other people's products that they did not choose.
Moderate evidence: Self-reported exposure.
Source: Steinemann 2018, Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Measured in people or real products
The more personal care products a pregnant woman used in a day, the higher her urine levels of phthalates and parabens, rising step by step.
Moderate evidence: Association with self-reported use.
Source: Braun 2014, Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Review of other studies
In US national biomonitoring, MEP, the breakdown product of the fragrance solvent DEP, was the most abundant phthalate in people's urine (average 181 ug/g creatinine).
Moderate evidence: NHANES data cited by a review; cite CDC primary; secondary citation of older NHANES data, cite the CDC report directly.
Source: Crinnion 2010, Alternative Medicine Review Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Measured in people or real products
In a test of 59 best-selling Korean household products, the citrus-scent chemical limonene was the chemical most often given off: it came from 44% of products, including bleach, dish soap, laundry detergent, disinfectant, and even a liquid pesticide.
Moderate evidence: Heated headspace, library-match ID, presence not exposure.
Source: Kwon 2007, Journal of Hazardous Materials Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Review of other studies
In the Los Angeles air basin in 2005, consumer products such as hair spray, cleaners, and perfumes were the second-largest human-made source of organic gases by weight (118.7 metric tons a day), behind only passenger cars, according to California's air regulator.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Regulatory inventory, 2005 snapshot; includes non-fragranced products and solvents. Direction confirmed by measurement in a second city: NYC 2018 VCP VOC ~1.5x fossil fuels by mass, tracer-verified (Coggon 2021).
Source: Chen & Luo 2012, Atmospheric Environment Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Review of other studies
Even after accounting for how readily each chemical forms smog, consumer products ranked third among all emission sources in the Los Angeles basin in 2005.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Model-based ozone reactivity; one episode. In NYC 2018, VCPs were modeled as comparable to fossil fuels for ozone (+11 vs +8 ppb at the downwind peak; box model 40:60) (Coggon 2021), so the 2005 LA ranking may understate them.
Source: Chen & Luo 2012, Atmospheric Environment Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Review of other studies
Perfumes and colognes alone released about 2.5 metric tons of organic gases a day into Los Angeles air in 2005, not counting fragrance in cleaners, air fresheners, or hair spray.
Moderate evidence: Inventory estimate for one CARB category.
Source: Chen & Luo 2012, Atmospheric Environment Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Measured in people or real products
In an EPA survey of 1,159 US household products from the late 1980s (mostly paints, automotive products, lubricants, and cleaners), 81% contained at least one of 31 common solvents at more than 0.1% of the product's weight, often at tens of per cent.
Moderate evidence: Historical (1987 purchases), solvent-biased sample, not fragranced products; composition not air levels.
Source: Sack 1992, Atmospheric Environment. Part A. General Topics Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Measured in people or real products
Household products have been recognized as a major source of indoor chemical pollution since at least the 1980s; this EPA survey was one of the first to measure it.
Moderate evidence: Product content, not exposure.
Source: Sack 1992, Atmospheric Environment. Part A. General Topics Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Measured in people or real products
Unlike traffic chemicals, scent chemicals were just as high in northern as in southern Europe (median 11.4 vs 12.0 ug/m3), pointing to everyday product use across the continent.
Moderate evidence: Grouped terpenes, no significance tests.
Source: Geiss 2011, Atmospheric Environment Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Measured in people or real products
In a lab experiment, women still learned to react differently to two women's body odors when both wore the same perfume: perfume did not stop people telling individuals apart by smell.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
46 women, 4 donors, custom low-dose perfume, conditioning as an indirect measure; no perfume x odor interaction tested. Now corroborated on the 'not abolished' floor claim by a much larger, direct primary test: Allen, Havlíček & Roberts 2015 (n=427, triangle test) found body-odor discrimination stayed above chance in all fragrance conditions (all p<0.001), though it fell significantly with fragrance and fell to chance for one specific subgroup (female donor odor + an unfamiliar assigned fragrance, 0.30-0.36 vs 0.33 chance) — so treat this as 'fragrance dampens but does not generally abolish discrimination', not as 'perfume has no effect'.
Fragrance is everywhere / Review of other studies
Musk ketone, a synthetic musk used mainly in cosmetics, was found in the body fat of every German tested in the 1990s and in breast milk at up to 240 µg per kg of milk fat.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Secondary report of German surveys (391 Bavarian milk samples, mean 40 µg/kg fat, plus a smaller n=5 cohort at 11 µg/kg fat); 1990s data. Rimkus & Wolf 1996 (the primary source of that n=5 cohort) directly confirms musk ketone detection in all 19 of their own German fat/milk samples (1993/1995), but their own milk values (5-30 µg/kg fat, mean 11) are far below the oft-quoted 240 µg/kg maximum from the separate, larger Bavarian survey – do not imply 240 is a typical value.
Source: Schmeiser 2001, International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Measured in people or real products
An older nitro musk (musk ketone), after European industry had moved away from nitro musks, was still in 85% of US mothers' milk in 2004.
Moderate evidence: N=39, Massachusetts only.
Source: Reiner 2007, Environmental Science & Technology Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Animal study
The vapor from a single cologne contained at least twenty identifiable chemicals – limonene, linalool, linalyl acetate, alpha- and beta-pinene, terpinolene, citronellol, anethole, coumarin, diethyl phthalate among them – none of which appear on the label.
Moderate evidence: Qualitative GC/MS of one test atmosphere, recoveries unknown, isomers possibly unresolved; one unnamed product.
Source: Anderson & Anderson 1998, Archives of Environmental Health Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Review of other studies
Fragrance is not only in perfume: dermatologists list it in makeup, shampoo, sunscreen, toothpaste, mouthwash, wipes, dish soap, detergent, air fresheners, cleaners, plastics, rubber, glue, paint, and waxes, and one Belgian survey found fragrance in 10% of topical medicines (66 different fragrance substances).
Moderate evidence: Qualitative list (de Groot 2020); the 10% is Nardelli 2009, Belgium.
Information, not medical advice. See also: myths we won’t tell you.