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
Pine-scent chemicals were also common in Korean household products: alpha-pinene from 19% and beta-myrcene from 12%.
Weak evidence: Headspace presence only; high detection threshold.
Source: Kwon 2007, Journal of Hazardous Materials Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Hypothesis
Immigrant women in the US most often work as house cleaners and make up 71% of manicurists; an expert job-exposure tool rates both jobs as probably exposed to fragrance chemicals, and house cleaning also to cleaning-product ingredients such as alkylphenols and antimicrobials.
Weak evidence: Exposure ratings from job descriptions (WORC), not measurements.
Source: Knox 2026, Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Self-reported survey
Among Atlanta-area adults who reported chemical hypersensitivity, symptom onset was reported before age 20 in about a third of cases (32.4%), suggesting hypersensitivity is not exclusively an adult-onset condition.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Retrospective self-report of childhood/adolescent onset in adults; no pediatric clinical verification; age-of-onset table has an internal mismatch with the running text for the older age brackets (see the page's Notes).
Source: Caress & Steinemann 2003 (EHP), Environmental Health Perspectives Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Other evidence
Flavor chemicals are added to foods at ppm levels and are largely volatile, with up to 80% lost on heating for some; the authors say most are simple chemicals also found naturally in food, but this does not address exposure from non-food sources.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Industry description with a cited loss figure of 'as much as 80%' for some volatiles; no exposure data for non-food uses. Written by two FEMA employees and supported by FEMA (the flavor industry trade association); it is the industry's own account of its own program.
Source: Hallagan 2009, Food and Chemical Toxicology Industry-funded Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Other evidence
After spraying a car air freshener, benzene and several other aromatic VOCs measured in the cabin went down by an average of about 40% for benzene (except in recirculation mode) while limonene went up, so the product masks rather than removes the car's own chemicals.
Weak evidence: The sprays contained no benzene; the drop was transient, came with no unsprayed control, and the authors' masking/displacement explanation was not tested.
Source: Lee 2024, Science of The Total Environment Link to this fact
Information, not medical advice. See also: myths we won’t tell you.