Don’t take our word for it. Here’s every fact on this site, with its evidence grade, its caveats, and a link to the source, so you can check us.
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.
Laws and loopholes / Government agency
The 2022 US cosmetics law does not cover air fresheners, cleaning products, or laundry products at all.
Strong evidence: MoCRA amends the FFDCA cosmetics chapter only; household products fall under CPSC/EPA law.
Source: MoCRA 2022 Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Other evidence
FDA's food allergen labeling law explicitly does not apply to cosmetics, drugs, or household cleaning products, so fragrance allergens in those products have no allergen-naming duty under it.
Strong evidence: Says nothing about the separate MoCRA fragrance-allergen rulemaking, which is still pending.
Source: FDA food allergen Q&A Ed. 5 (2025), FDA guidance for industry (Docket FDA-2022-D-0099) Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Other evidence
OSHA lists perfumes and colognes, cleaning products, pesticides and personal-care products among sources of workplace indoor air pollutants, but sets no limit or rule for any of them.
Strong evidence: Mentions are brief source lists; fragrance is not named as a category, and no health data are given.
Source: OSHA 3430-04, 2011 Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Review of other studies
Fewer than half (46.0%) of 63 reviewed fragrance-free policies included any supply-chain or procurement control over the cleaning, laundry, or air-freshening products the institution itself buys, even though named triggers in the companion focus-group study rank cleaning and laundry products alongside or above perfume.
Moderate evidence: Document analysis; does not establish that procurement control would reduce measured exposure, only that most policies do not attempt it.
Laws and loopholes / Government agency
HUD's own Occupancy Handbook (4350.3 REV-1, Exhibit 2-6, June 2007) states that for a HUD-assisted housing resident with chemical sensitivity disorder, it is not an undue financial and administrative burden for the owner to give advance notice before cleaning common areas and to use nonchemical alternative cleaning methods where practical.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Binding operational guidance for HUD-assisted multifamily housing, not a court ruling; applies only to owner-controlled common-area cleaning, not to other tenants' or staff's personal fragrance/scent use, and 'where practical' is left case-by-case.
Source: HUD Occupancy Handbook 4350.3 REV-1, Exhibit 2-6 (2007) Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Other evidence
EWG Verified counts fragrance in its VOC limits and does not use California's fragrance exemption (0.25 percent by weight for several cleaner categories from 2031).
Moderate evidence: Program rule, not a measured emission result; compares a voluntary standard with California's regulation.
Source: EWG Verified criteria for cleaning products (10.24), Environmental Working Group, 2024 Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Other evidence
In 2012 US law required ingredient labels on food, cosmetics, and drugs but not on household cleaning products, according to EWG.
Moderate evidence: Stated by an advocacy group without citation; the legal position since 2012 has changed in some states, so date the claim.
Source: EWG press release, Sept. 10, 2012, EWG press release (web page) Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Other evidence
Suffolk County Local Law 15-2016 required the county health department to build a consumer-facing system categorizing garment-cleaning solvents; US EPA will no longer allow perchloroethylene cleaners to operate in residential buildings after 2020, and New York already requires closed-loop machines.
Moderate evidence: Describes law as the report states it in 2018; later regulatory changes were not checked.
Source: SCDHS 2018 Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Government agency
No US program requires VOC emission testing of cleaning products: EPA Safer Choice certifies fragrance-free products but, per the authors, does not require or disclose emission testing, and the chamber data show hundreds of emitted chemicals missing from labels and industry databases.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
EWG-authored (advocacy nonprofit that ranks cleaners and licenses EWG VERIFIED to cleaner makers); Skyline Foundation grant; unblinded; The authors' characterization of Safer Choice (2016 reference); not independently checked against current program rules.
Laws and loopholes / Other evidence
EWG calls the lack of public safety information on chemicals in everyday products 'a major failing of the nation's outdated chemical policy' and says manufacturers and government 'largely leave consumers in the dark' about cleaning-product contents.
Weak evidence: Advocacy-organization position in 2012, with no data or citation in this piece.
Source: Andrews, EWG, 2012 (web page) Link to this fact
Information, not medical advice. See also: myths we won’t tell you.