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The fragrance facts, graded

Every fact on this site, with its evidence grade, its caveats, and a link to the source.

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.

1 facts match “phthalate”

Hidden ingredients / Review of other studies

In a 2007 NRDC test of 14 US air fresheners, 12 (86%) — including some labeled 'all-natural' or 'unscented' — emitted phthalates at up to 7,307 ppm, and none listed a phthalate on the label.

Weak evidence.

Caveats

NRDC 2007 is gray literature (an advocacy-group test, not peer-reviewed) and is not itself in our evidence base; this relays it secondhand through a 2017 review. Only 14 products tested, almost 20 years ago, so 86% is not a figure for the current market or for air fresheners in general. Peer-reviewed testing (Dodson 2012) separately confirms air fresheners are among the highest-DEP product categories, but does not reproduce this specific percentage.

Source: NRDC 2007 (via Steinemann 2017), Building and Environment Link to this fact

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