Purdue study warns about fragrance air pollution in homes

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A new study from Purdue is shedding light on chemicals in your home from air fresheners and scented products that could be dangerous to your health over time.

In a specially designed small house lab, a research team from the university used state-of-the-art equipment to explore how everyday household products affect indoor air quality.

When the fragrances are released indoors, the team found they react with the ozone to form nanoparticles, which essentially creates air pollution in your own home.

This includes candles, wax melts, essential oil diffusers, cleaning products, scented sprays and beauty products.

“There’s a traditional kind of respiratory cardiovascular effects that I think are fairly well established for just air pollution in general,” Brandon Boor, an assistant professor in civil engineering for the university, said when asked about the health effects this can cause. “But then there’s this impact on our ability to think, our ability to create, our ability to learn.”

Research from the National Institutes of Health found that fragrance-related chemical products can trigger or intensify symptoms of allergies, headaches and cardiovascular disease.

“In worse cases, fragrance chemicals interfere with the neuroendocrine-immune axis promoting cancer and developmental problems,” the NIH report said.

Nusrat Jung, an assistant professor of civil engineering at the university, and her students found that some chemicals commonly found in hair products can linger in the air during and after use. Their research found that in a single hair care session at home, a person can inhale a cumulative mass of one to 17 milligrams of chemicals.

The researchers said indoor air quality is often overlooked as people think air pollution is strongest outdoors with things like vehicle or factory fumes. They hope their research alerts people to be more aware of their home air environment as well.

“It is not natural, and by not natural, I mean you will never encounter such a situation in a natural environment,” said Jung of the fragrance products used in homes. “We can learn a lot from just simply having that in the back of our mind. So avoid use of heavily scented products and perhaps reduce the indoor pollution you might be exposing yourself to in advertently.”

They said improving ventilation and air filtration in your home is a good step. You should look for products that have no fragrance..

There are also ways to scent your home using nature, like flowers, pine cones, eucalyptus, or trying a simmer pot.

Click here to learn more about the Purdue study.