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 / 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
Information, not medical advice. See also: myths we won’t tell you.