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 / 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 / Review of other studies
About 60% of the fragrance used in homes goes down the drain into rivers and lakes, and wastewater treatment removes little of it; polycyclic musks such as galaxolide turn up in rivers, lake air, mussels, and human milk.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
The 60% figure is from older industry/secondary sources (Bickers 2003, Bridges 2002). The human-milk sub-claim is now supported by three independent primary studies spanning three countries: Rimkus & Wolf 1996 (Germany, n=5, 1993/1995), Reiner 2007 (US, n=39, 2004), and Lignell 2008 (Sweden, n=101, 1996-2003); cite these primaries for milk levels, not this review.
Source: Khalid & Abdollahi 2021, Iranian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Measured in people or real products
As early as the mid-1990s, the musk fragrance chemicals galaxolide (HHCB) and tonalide (AHTN) were already detectable in the body fat and breast milk of every German person tested, 19 out of 19 samples.
Moderate evidence: Small sample (14 adipose + 5 milk, one German region, 1993/1995); no product-use data or health outcome measured.
Fragrance is everywhere / Measured in people or real products
Even at musk levels roughly an order of magnitude below US, South Korean, and Danish cohorts, synthetic musk fragrance chemicals were still detected in 95% of blood, cord-blood, and breast-milk samples from 42 Shanghai mothers and their newborns.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Shanghai musk levels were roughly an order of magnitude lower than comparable US, South Korean or Danish cohorts, reflecting lower musk-containing product use in China in 2007; no product-use data were actually collected in this study to confirm the cause.
Source: Zhang 2015, International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health Link to this fact
Information, not medical advice. See also: myths we won’t tell you.