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
Deodorants alone are estimated to deliver roughly 1,000 metric tons of fragrance per year to the German population, based on standard daily-dose, dermal-retention, and perfume-content assumptions.
Weak evidence: A calculated estimate from published dose and market-size figures, not a measured total; depends on assumed 1% dermal retention and 3-5% perfume content.
Source: Klaschka 2012, International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Other evidence
In the industry's illustrative model of 36,446 US and European adults, the 95th-percentile person received about 7.55 g/day of product on the skin and in the mouth from 19 personal-care product types, with mouthwash, mass-market body lotion, and deodorant roll-on the largest contributors.
Weak evidence: Model output from 2007-2008 diary data, industry-funded; Fig. 3 shares are read from a chart.
Source: Safford et al. 2015, Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology Industry-funded Link to this fact
Fragrance is everywhere / Government agency
Alpha-isomethyl ionone, an allergen on the EU's 1999 labeled list, was declared on 46.6% of 88 deodorants checked in 2007 and detected in about 65% of 23 analyzed deodorants (6-2,588 ppm); it was found in 21.7% of 516 consumer products in another survey.
Weak evidence.
Caveats
Small, older market surveys cited from other authors (German/Danish samples); label-declaration frequency, not exposure; the underlying patch-test rates for this chemical are low (0-2.1%).
Information, not medical advice. See also: myths we won’t tell you.