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.
Health effects / Self-reported survey
In a national survey of 1,098 Australian adults, one in three (33%) said fragranced products such as air fresheners, cleaners, and perfume gave them health problems, most often breathing trouble, migraines, and skin reactions.
Moderate evidence: Self-report; same dataset as Steinemann 2018 AU asthmatics, 2018 AU MCS, and 2019 AU arm (362/1,098 reconfirmed in the MCS paper's Table 1; not a replication).
Source: Steinemann 2017, Preventive Medicine Reports Link to this fact
Health effects / Self-reported survey
In national surveys of 4,435 adults in the US, Australia, the UK, and Sweden, about 1 in 3 (32%) said fragranced products such as air fresheners, scented cleaners, or other people's perfume cause them health problems.
Moderate evidence: Self-report; any symptom from any product counts; pooled re-analysis of previously published surveys; the US arm (34.7%) is the same dataset as four US papers.
Source: Steinemann 2019, Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health Link to this fact
Health effects / Self-reported survey
Among people with symptoms, 56% named other people's perfume, 32% air fresheners, and 28% other people's freshly washed (fabric-softened) clothes as triggers.
Moderate evidence: Self-report.
Source: Elberling 2005, Clinical and Experimental Allergy Link to this fact
Health effects / Self-reported survey
In a nationally representative survey of 1,136 US adults, 34.7% said fragranced products such as air fresheners, cleaners, and perfume gave them health problems, most often breathing difficulties, eye/nose irritation, or migraine.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Self-report, any symptom from any product; not a diagnosis; adults 18-65 in an opt-in online panel; same US dataset as the 2018 asthmatics, 2018 MCS, and 2019 pooled papers (not replications); 62.7% of the affected also report chemical sensitivity or MCS, but 17.8% of people with neither are still affected.
Source: Steinemann 2016, Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health Link to this fact
Health effects / Self-reported survey
In a nationally representative survey of 1,100 UK adults, 27.8% said fragranced products such as air fresheners, cleaners, or perfume gave them health problems, including migraines (8.4%) and asthma attacks (6.8%).
Moderate evidence: Self-report, any symptom; same data as Steinemann 2019 UK arm.
Source: Steinemann 2018, Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health Link to this fact
Health effects / Measured in people or real products
In a double-blind lab test where people could not smell it, perfume vapor piped to one eye caused more eye irritation than clean air in 10 of 42 people, including 2 healthy volunteers: perfume can irritate the eyes without being smelled.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
N=42; mostly self-rated eye symptoms; patient vs control difference P=0.07; only 2 objective tearing events. Consistent with the earlier single-blind Millqvist 1999 (eye irritation 1.1 vs 0.2 on 0-3, n=11), a different group, perfume and patient type. Das-Munshi, Rubin & Wessely 2006's systematic review classifies both single-blind Millqvist perfume studies (1996, 1999) as insufficiently blinded (nose clips only, no true olfactory mask), so they should not be counted as strong independent corroboration; Elberling's own double-blind result stands on its own primary data, which is why this stays at moderate rather than strong.
Health effects / Measured in people or real products
The eye irritation from perfume vapor was not an allergy: people patch-test allergic to the very same perfume were no more likely to react than those who were not.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
21 patients, 10 patch-test positive; small sample. A related 2007 study from the same group, clinic, and challenge perfume found the same pattern in a different assay: basophil histamine release to perfume was not associated with contact-allergy patch-test status either (Table 4, all P > 0.05, n=17 patients). This is modest corroboration from the same research program (same lab/clinic/perfume), not independent replication, so the grade is unchanged.
Health effects / Measured in people or real products
In a Toronto clinic for work-related breathing problems, about 1 in 10 referred workers had an irritable larynx (throat) syndrome rather than asthma; perfumes and cleaning agents, bleaches and air fresheners were among the named triggers.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Single referral clinic, retrospective, n=30; perfume named by 5/30 and cleaning agents/fresheners by 4/30; 10% of referrals, not of workers. Morrison 1999, the founding case series behind the diagnostic criteria Hoy applied, independently found perfume was a named trigger in only 26% (10/39) of its own ILS cohort, behind reflux (72%) and other airborne irritants (51%) — the syndrome is not fragrance-specific at its point of origin either.
Health effects / Measured in people or real products
Over 20 years (1993–2012), California's work-related asthma surveillance confirmed 270 cases linked to perfume or air fresheners at work, 3.8% of all confirmed cases; perfume was the 9th most common workplace asthma exposure.
Moderate evidence: Surveillance count of physician-diagnosed, reported cases; misses >=2/3 of cases; no objective testing required; excludes fragranced cleaners.
Health effects / Measured in people or real products
94% of workers with fragrance-related work asthma in California were women, mostly in offices, health care, and schools, and most cases came from perfume worn by others.
Moderate evidence: Authors attribute the sex skew to occupation and exposure, not susceptibility; care-seeking bias possible.
Health effects / Self-reported survey
Of all personal care product types, perfumes and colognes had the highest hazard ratings in the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep database, and adults aged 18–39 used the highest-rated ones (average 7.2 of 10, vs 5.9 for those 60 and over).
Moderate evidence: EWG hazard ratings from listed ingredients, not measured toxicity or exposure; 39% of perfumes used could not be rated.
Source: Barrett 2025, Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology Link to this fact
Health effects / Lab study (cells or chemistry)
In a 2025 lab screen of 42 everyday perfumes, almost all contained compounds that damaged bacterial DNA, killed cells, blocked the hormone-making enzyme aromatase, or acted on human estrogen or androgen receptors in test organisms, regardless of price or whether the perfume was marketed to men or women.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
In vitro (bacteria, yeast, isolated enzyme on a chromatography plate); 42 unnamed perfumes from one German campus; no compound identified; no human exposure measured. A 2026 same-lab follow-up (Schmidtmann 2026) confirms only the DNA-damage/cytotoxicity part (bacterial Ames, not the same assay) in a smaller, different, unnamed 8-perfume set, still without metabolic (S9) activation for perfumes and without retesting the hormone-active endpoints — same-lab corroboration, not independent replication.
Source: Morlock & Heil 2025, Journal of Chromatography A Link to this fact
Health effects / Measured in people or real products
Sunlight can turn some fragrance chemicals into skin allergens: the now-banned perfume ingredient 7-methoxycoumarin made 11 of 25 volunteers photoallergic, and in people already sensitized, 0.001% plus UVA light triggered a reaction.
Moderate evidence: Artificial UVA at 20 J/cm2 (~1 h summer sun) for the 0.001% figure; predictive photomaximization test; ingredient banned in EU cosmetics since 2000.
Source: SCCNFP 2000 Link to this fact
Health effects / Self-reported survey
Among Australians who said they had been diagnosed with multiple chemical sensitivities, 91.5% reported health problems from fragranced products such as air fresheners, scented cleaners, and other people's perfume.
Moderate evidence: N = 71; self-report; partly built into the definition.
Source: Steinemann 2018, Preventive Medicine Reports Link to this fact
Health effects / Self-reported survey
In the same 2016 US survey, about 1 in 4 adults (25.9%) said they were unusually sensitive to everyday chemicals such as cleaning products, perfume, and detergents, and 81% of them reported health problems from fragranced products.
Moderate evidence: Self-report; adults 18-65 in an opt-in online panel; earlier US telephone surveys gave 11-16%.
Source: Steinemann 2018 (JOEM), Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine Link to this fact
Health effects / Measured in people or real products
In a small lab test where patients could not smell it, perfume released near their eyes caused more eye irritation than a saline dummy (1.1 vs 0.2 on a 0-3 scale); a later double-blind study found the same eye effect.
Moderate evidence: Single-blind, n=11, self-rated; corroborated double-blind by Elberling 2006 (8/21 patients vs 2/21 controls, P=0.07).
Health effects / Self-reported survey
In a 1986 clinic and hospital survey of 60 asthma patients, 72% said perfume or cologne worsened their asthma, and two asthma patients who could not smell at all still reacted to perfume worn by others nearby.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Small, single-center, unblinded self-report, not selected for representativeness; higher than the ~34-43% airway-symptom rate in later representative population surveys, consistent with a clinic ceiling.
Source: Shim & Williams 1986, The American Journal of Medicine Link to this fact
Health effects / Measured in people or real products
In lab tests, basophils (a type of blood immune cell) from people with perfume-related breathing symptoms released significantly more histamine when exposed to strong perfume than basophils from healthy volunteers, but only at the strongest concentration tested; both groups' basophils started releasing histamine at the same dose.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Small sample (17 patients vs 20 controls) from a dermatology patch-test clinic, not a general population; significant only at the single highest (5%) perfume concentration; no chemical fractionation to identify which fragrance component(s) drove release.
Source: Elberling 2007, Clinical and Experimental Allergy Link to this fact
Health effects / Measured in people or real products
The excess basophil reactivity to perfume in symptomatic patients was not explained by allergy antibodies in the blood (a passive-serum-transfer test found no difference between groups) and did not track whether a patient also had a skin (contact) allergy, an inhalant allergy, or asthma.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Same research group, clinic and perfume as the 2006 eye-challenge study, so this corroborates rather than independently replicates that program's earlier 'not classic allergy' findings.
Source: Elberling 2007, Clinical and Experimental Allergy Link to this fact
Health effects / Measured in people or real products
In a small Swedish clinic study, people whose breathing symptoms were set off by scents reacted to a blinded perfume challenge with more symptoms than a saline placebo, even though a nasal clamp meant they could not smell either one, and their lung function, oxygen levels, heart rate, and breathing rate never changed at all.
Moderate evidence: N=9, single clinic, self-rated symptoms, perfume-vs-saline contrast single-blind (not double-blind); no healthy control group.
Source: Millqvist & Löwhagen 1996, Allergy Link to this fact
Health effects / Measured in people or real products
Wearing a mask with an active-carbon filter, the kind designed to remove odors and organic vapors from the air, did not stop a scent-triggered breathing reaction to perfume: symptom scores with the carbon filter were no different from a dummy filter.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
N=9, one perfume, unmeasured chamber concentration, single clinic; this arm of the study was double-blind. The paper's own hypothesis is that the reaction may enter through the eyes, which the mask does not cover, so this does not test filters that also shield the eyes.
Source: Millqvist & Löwhagen 1996, Allergy Link to this fact
Health effects / Measured in people or real products
In the clinical case series that first defined "irritable larynx syndrome," perfume was a named symptom trigger in about a quarter of patients (10 of 39), well behind reflux (72%) and other airborne irritants (51%).
Moderate evidence: Single specialist voice clinic, retrospective, uncontrolled, n=39; self-reported triggers, multiple allowed per patient; not an occupational or fragrance-specific population.
Health effects / Measured in people or real products
About 85% of patients in the founding irritable larynx syndrome case series were judged to have gastroesophageal reflux contributing to their laryngeal symptoms, making reflux the single most common named trigger and etiologic factor, ahead of any airborne trigger including perfume.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Single clinic, n=39, reflux mostly diagnosed by symptoms/history rather than pH monitoring or gastroscopy; the paper's own abstract rounds this to ">90%", but the Results table gives 33/39 = 84.6%.
Health effects / Self-reported survey
In a large random sample of Swedish adults (Vasterbotten, n=3,406), 12.2% said they get symptoms from odorous or pungent chemicals such as perfumes and cleaning agents in doses that don't bother most other people, but only 3.3% had actually been given a doctor's diagnosis of a chemical-intolerance condition.
Moderate evidence: Single region (Vasterbotten county), not national; diagnosis status is itself self-reported, not verified against medical records.
Source: Palmquist 2014, International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health Link to this fact
Health effects / Self-reported survey
In a 2002-03 US national telephone survey of 1,054 randomly selected adults, 11.2% self-identified as unusually sensitive to everyday chemicals such as cleaning products, perfume, and detergents, and 2.5% said they had been medically diagnosed with multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS).
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Single national random-digit-dial telephone survey; self-report with no clinical verification of hypersensitivity or diagnosis; the earliest in a cross-country series of self-report chemical-sensitivity prevalence figures.
Source: Caress & Steinemann 2003, Archives of Environmental Health: An International Journal Link to this fact
Health effects / Advocacy group testing
Six substances found in the tested perfumes are classed by this report as suspected endocrine disruptors: benzyl salicylate, BHT, butylphenyl methylpropional, ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, ethylhexyl salicylate, and octocrylene.
Moderate evidence: 'suspected' means the substance appears on one or more screening/priority lists, not that endocrine disruption in humans at perfume-use doses has been demonstrated.
Source: Tegengif 2022 Link to this fact
Health effects / Advocacy group testing
Butylphenyl methylpropional, found in several of the tested perfumes, is the one substance in this report's list of 26 that is also classed as reprotoxic.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
NGO audit of ingredient labels on 20 popular perfumes bought in three EU countries, not a random sample; it checks declared ingredients against hazard lists and measures no concentrations.
Source: Tegengif 2022 Link to this fact
Health effects / Measured in people or real products
Adaptation to a scent is specific to that scent, not a general loss of smell: in the same home-exposure study, sensitivity to a control odorant that was never part of the exposure stayed normal throughout, so someone who has gone nose-blind to their own perfume can still smell other things fine.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Same single small study (n=10) as the companion claim above; the specificity finding is corroborated qualitatively by an independent occupational study (acetone-exposed workers, no change to control odorants) already in our evidence base.
Source: Dalton 2000, Chemical Senses Industry-funded Link to this fact
Health effects / Self-reported survey
In a Brazilian headache-clinic study of 200 diagnosed migraine patients, 70% (140/200) reported that an odor — most often perfume (75.7% of those affected) — had triggered a headache at least once in their life, with pain typically beginning within about 10 to 25 minutes of exposure.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Retrospective lifetime recall at a single referral clinic in Teresina, Brazil (2011); non-random convenience sample; no prospective diary, blinded challenge, or control for premonitory-phase symptoms that can be mistaken for triggers.
Health effects / Self-reported survey
Among the same 113 migraineurs, 90.2% had migraine crises triggered by odors, and of those, perfume was by far the most common odor trigger (95.1%), followed by cleaning products (81.3%), cigarette smoke (71.5%) and motor vehicle exhaust (70.5%).
Moderate evidence: Self-report, unvalidated questionnaire, single clinical sample, no provocation testing of the named odors.
Source: Fornazieri 2016, Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain Link to this fact
Health effects / Self-reported survey
Perfume as a migraine trigger was significantly more common in migraineurs without auras than with auras (P = .02), while physical exercise as a trigger was more common in those with auras (P = .01); no other olfactory symptom (osmophobia, odor-triggered crisis, interictal hypersensitivity, hallucinations, phantosmia, cacosmia/euosmia) differed between the two groups (all P > .4).
Moderate evidence: Single-center cross-sectional sample; aura classification self-reported, not independently verified.
Source: Fornazieri 2016, Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain Link to this fact
Health effects / Self-reported survey
Migraine patients with interictal olfactory hypersensitivity scored far higher on a validated 5-item chemical odor intolerance index (pesticide, paint, perfume, new carpet, car exhaust) — 18.7 +/- 3.2 — than migraineurs without it (11.7 +/- 3.6) or headache-free controls (9.9 +/- 3.5), a clear dose-like gradient (all pairwise P <= 0.02).
Moderate evidence: Single-center, cross-sectional; the index is validated but coarse (5 items) and self-report.
Health effects / Other evidence
In a 2007 study of 1,207 migraine patients at one Atlanta headache clinic, 43.7% said perfume or odor triggered their attacks at least occasionally, but only 10.7% said it did so in most attacks (more than 66%).
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Single specialist clinic, 84% of the wider cohort women; self-reported recall with no diary or exposure measurement; 'perfume or odor' is one lumped item, not fragrance products specifically.
Source: Kelman 2007, Cephalalgia, Cephalalgia Link to this fact
Health effects / Other evidence
In the same review, about 40% of migraine patients (40.1%, 95% CI 32.7-47.8) said an odor can trigger their attacks; among those naming odor triggers, perfume was the most common (65.0%), then smoke (36.3%) and household cleaners, bleach, or chemicals (29.0%).
Moderate evidence: Retrospective self-report; trigger vs premonitory aversion not separated; the same 40.1% figure also appears for in-attack hypersensitivity with a different CI.
Source: Briggs et al. 2025, World J Otorhinolaryngol Head Neck Surg, World Journal of Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Link to this fact
Health effects / Other evidence
In 400 Boston men, those who used cologne or perfume in the past 24 hours had about 83% higher urinary MEP, the breakdown product of the fragrance solvent diethyl phthalate, than men who did not.
Moderate evidence: One cohort at one clinic, shared lab and authors with the women's EARTH study; exposure marker only, no health outcome. Whether MEP marks DEP or the fragrance mixture is disputed.
Source: Nassan 2017, Environmental Health Perspectives Link to this fact
Health effects / Measured in people or real products
The phthalates linked to lower vocabulary scores in this Korean child study were DEHP metabolites (plastics, food contact); the fragrance-phthalate marker MEP was not measured, so the study says nothing about perfume.
Moderate evidence: Only MEHP, MEOHP and MBP were measured.
Source: Cho 2010, Environmental Health Perspectives Link to this fact
Health effects / Other evidence
In a random survey of 1,582 adults in the Atlanta, Georgia metro area (1999-2000), 12.6% said they were allergic or unusually sensitive to everyday chemicals like cleaning products, paints, perfumes, detergents and insect spray, and 3.1% said a doctor had diagnosed multiple chemical sensitivity or environmental illness.
Moderate evidence: Self-report only, one metro area; sampling frame, interview mode and response rate are not reported in this brief; no clinical verification.
Source: Caress & Steinemann 2004 (AJPH), American Journal of Public Health Link to this fact
Health effects / Other evidence
In a Japanese headache clinic, 78% of 101 migraine patients linked their attacks to odors, and perfume was the most-named one (about 56%), ahead of tobacco smoke (47.5%) and fabric softener (32.7%).
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Single clinic, retrospective self-report from a 35-item list, no controls or diary; the authors note early premonitory symptoms may be mistaken for triggers. Association, not proof perfume causes attacks.
Information, not medical advice. See also: myths we won’t tell you.