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.
The industry / Industry source
Even after this 2017 update, the fragrance industry's own aggregate exposure model still explicitly excluded household cleaning and laundry products — the product category the industry's own 2003 safety-process paper says accounts for about 60% of fragrance volume — and named their inclusion as future work.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Single industry methods paper describing its own model's scope; the gap was closed industry-wide only in a later 2024 paper (Lee et al.), which this claim's caveat should be read alongside.
Source: Comiskey 2017 (RIFM/Creme Global), Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology Industry-funded Link to this fact
The industry / Measured in people or real products
Tumble dryer manufacturers give directly conflicting instructions on cleaning the lint filter: some tell consumers to rinse it under water, others recommend a dishwasher, others dry methods only, and one (John Lewis) explicitly says never use water, for environmental reasons.
Moderate evidence: One UK market snapshot (24 brands, January 2023), not checked against other countries or against what consumers actually do.
Source: Cummins 2023, PLOS ONE Industry-funded Link to this fact
The industry / Government agency
Benzophenone is widely used as a UV-curing photoinitiator for inks and varnishes, a fragrance fixative/enhancer and flavoring agent, a UV blocker in plastic packaging, and an additive in coatings, adhesives, laundry and household cleaning products; the US EPA classified it a high-production-volume chemical in 2003, with US annual production exceeding 1 million pounds (453,000 kg).
Moderate evidence: Production/use figures are the Working Group's synthesis of industry and HSDB/NTP secondary sources, not independently verified primary measurement.
Source: IARC 2013 Link to this fact
The industry / Measured in people or real products
All cleaning products tested in this study (laundry detergent, fabric softener, dust/floor/glass cleaners, and a smoke remover) contained detectable VOCs; alkanes (mainly n-tetradecane, 87 µg/mL in the laundry detergent) and terpenes (mainly limonene, up to 64 µg/mL in the smoke-remover spray) were the dominant classes, while chlorine bleach (not itself tested for VOCs but used liberally) was linked to the chloroform and carbon tetrachloride found in laundry-room air.
Moderate evidence: Only 7 products from one hotel were tested; formulations vary by brand and hotel.
The industry / Review of other studies
The 2016 review of clothing-cleaning methods was funded by Australian Wool Innovation, the wool industry's research body, and a coauthor works there; wool is the fiber it says needs more research on wet cleaning.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Funding by a fiber-growers body, not a solvent maker; no competing-interest statement beyond the funding line. This is a disclosure of potential interest, not evidence of bias in any specific finding.
Source: Troynikov 2016, Journal of Environmental Management Industry-funded Link to this fact
Information, not medical advice. See also: myths we won’t tell you.