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.
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
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 / 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
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 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
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.
Fragrance is everywhere / Self-reported survey
In a 1995 population-based telephone survey of 4,046 California adults, 15.9% said they were 'allergic or unusually sensitive to everyday chemicals' (like cleaning supplies, paints, perfumes, or soaps) and 6.3% reported a doctor's diagnosis of environmental illness or multiple chemical sensitivity.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Self-report only, no clinical verification of diagnosis or symptoms; California-specific, not national; the study's own authors take no position on whether this reflects a real physiologic condition or societal apprehension about chemicals.
Source: Kreutzer, Neutra & Lashuay 1999, American Journal of Epidemiology Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Other evidence
More than 2,000 chemical substances, of which 300 to 400 are of natural origin, are used across the fragrance industry, and a single perfume can contain from a few to several hundred individual fragrance materials.
Moderate evidence: Industry-wide chemical count from a single review citing an industry-adjacent source (ref 10); see the broader chemical-count provenance problem.
Source: de Groot 2020, Dermatitis 31(1):13-35, Dermatitis® Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Advocacy group testing
The UV filter ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, found in several of the tested perfumes, and limonene, one of the most common fragrance ingredients, are both flagged by this report as environmentally problematic; the EU classifies limonene as very toxic to aquatic life.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
The water-contamination claim for ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate specifically is supported in the report only by a citation to a review of a different, though related, UV filter (oxybenzone); however, an independent peer-reviewed marine-ecotoxicology review (Hodge et al. 2025) now corroborates the general pattern that organic UV filters including EHMC are detected in marine water, sediment, and biota worldwide (ng/L-mg/L), including remote regions with no direct use (Antarctica, the Arctic), and lists EHMC as the third-most-studied organic UV filter in that literature.
Source: Tegengif 2022 Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Measured in people or real products
The study's own protocol lists 'hygiene products (e.g., deodorant sprays; aftershave lotions; perfumes; cosmetics; insect repellents)' alongside mouthwash as products that contain or may contain ethanol, and had participants avoid them as confounding ethanol sources.
Moderate evidence: This is a study-design control list, not a measurement of ethanol content or absorption from perfumes/cosmetics specifically.
Source: Reisfield 2021, Journal of Analytical Toxicology Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Other evidence
In a 2013 national survey of 7,131 French people, two-thirds of adult women (67%) and nearly half of adult men (47%) used perfume in the past year, applying it close to once a day on average.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Single cross-sectional French survey using categorical 12-month recall, not a weighed diary; frequency for very-frequent products may be underestimated (the scale capped at twice-daily).
Source: Ficheux et al. 2015, Food and Chemical Toxicology Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Self-reported survey
The most commonly named problem odors among migraine patients in this German clinic sample were sweet perfumes, food odors, and cigarette smoke, with sweet perfumes the single most frequently named odor across every phase of the migraine cycle (approx. 36% of patients named it for osmophobia in general, read from Fig. 1).
Moderate evidence: Fig. 1 percentages are approximate, read from a bar chart, not printed as exact table values.
Source: Gossrau 2022, The Journal of Headache and Pain Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Self-reported survey
In two US national telephone surveys (2002-03 and 2005-06, about 1,057 adults each), about 3 in 10 adults (30.5% on average) said being next to someone wearing a scented product such as perfume or aftershave is irritating.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Self-reported irritation, not a clinical outcome; two surveys by the same authors; the question offered 'irritating or appealing' and only the irritating share is reported. Landline-era phone samples; no response rate given.
Source: Caress & Steinemann 2009, Journal of Environmental Health Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Measured in people or real products
Because most cosmetics contain fragrance, the dermatologists noted that fragrance allergy is not limited to fragrance products: fragrance ingredients were the commonest allergen group even though perfumes and colognes were only 7% of reactions.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Authors' inference from a selected series; 39 reactions were to unspecified fragrance and 77 to individually identified fragrance ingredients, with the 77 not reproducible from the printed table.
Source: Eiermann 1982, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Review of other studies
Fragrance chemicals used in sunscreens, soaps and perfumes (amyl, hexyl and benzyl salicylate and three trade-name aroma chemicals) were measured in wastewater and coastal seawater at an Antarctic research station at low ng/L levels, about 2 to 54 ng/L.
Moderate evidence: One source study and one station; no toxicity, removal or risk data for these compounds; no synthetic musks measured.
Source: Balakrishna 2023 (review), Environmental Research Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Review of other studies
A 2022 review of 37 studies found that phthalates, parabens, aldehydes, and aluminum salts are the contaminants most often reported in perfumes, colognes, and related scented products.
Weak evidence: Non-quantitative review with factual slips; cite primary studies for numbers.
Source: Kazemi 2022, Journal of Environmental Health Science and Engineering Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Measured in people or real products
The same perfume does not come off the skin the same way every day: in women not on the pill, a fixed dose of vanilla on the forearm was rated about 3 times stronger on cycle day 22 than during menstruation.
Weak evidence: 18 women (9 per group), 25 male raters, no hormone confirmation, no unperfumed control, no statistics printed, storage time unreported.
Source: Chróst 2021, Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Review of other studies
Deodorants alone are estimated to deliver roughly 1,000 metric tons of fragrance per year to the German population, based on standard daily-dose, dermal-retention, and perfume-content assumptions.
Weak evidence: A calculated estimate from published dose and market-size figures, not a measured total; depends on assumed 1% dermal retention and 3-5% perfume content.
Source: Klaschka 2012, International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Review of other studies
The review lists perfumes, hair sprays, soaps and nail varnishes as products that contain phthalates, but names no specific phthalate for those products and no musk, UV filter, paraben or terpene.
Weak evidence: One generic sentence; it supports no fragrance-specific neurotoxicity claim.
Source: Jocsak 2026, Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Other evidence
In a 30-person Shanghai lab study, a floral-musk perfume blend from Shiseido (jasmine, musk, muguet, rose, bergamot and others) was linked to faster reaction times on a go/nogo button task after a 15-minute simulated drive (about 445 ms vs 484 ms with no scent).
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Small crossover, young adults, nobody drove (watched a video), participants could smell the scent so it was not blinded, odorless rather than placebo-odor control, no air concentration measured, scent supplier employed the first author, and stats treat paired data as independent.
Information, not medical advice. See also: myths we won’t tell you.