Be Fragrance-Free, Especially for the Children

It’s also good for you and good for me.

Being fragrance-free is especially good for children and fetuses, who are vulnerable to suffering developmental harms from chemical pollutants.

Very few fragrances these days are made from flowers and plants. Most are synthetic, petroleum based concoctions, including ingredients known to cause health harm, and  many more that have never been tested for health effects.

Fragrance is ubiquitous in indoor air, more prevalent than smoke ever was, and like smoke, fragrance also does not respect arbitrary boundaries. Remember smoking sections and how well those worked? Fragrance-free “areas” are just as ineffective. The volatile ingredients move throughout the air, everywhere and anywhere. They also cause second and third hand chemical contamination and health problems, just like smoke. This means that airborne fragrances settle into anything in the spaces they are found, and the residues from those items, your hands, hair,  or clothing, can also rub off on anything they come in contact with.

Breathing is not optional.

No-one should have to breathe toxic chemicals 24/7, especially children.

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or a stronger message

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Recent news and Research

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SickKids Hospital introduces fragrance-free policy

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Prenatal exposure to common household chemicals linked with substantial drop in child IQ
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141210140823.htm

 “While avoiding all phthalates in the United States is for now impossible, the researchers recommend that pregnant women take steps to limit exposure by not microwaving food in plastics, avoiding scented products as much as possible, including air fresheners, and dryer sheets, and not using recyclable plastics labeled as 3, 6, or 7.”

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What You Need To Know About Fragrance—A Trade Secret With Not-So-Secret Health Implications
http://healthychild.org/what-you-need-to-know-about-fragrance-a-trade-secret-with-not-so-secret-health-implications/

…“Even if you keep your home as scent-free as possible, kids will inevitably come into contact with fragrance. Everyone from your babysitter to the in-laws is likely wearing some fragrance—be it in musky cologne, hand cream, hair spray, makeup, or as residue in freshly laundered clothing. Exposure happens as they pollute the air, and cuddle and play with your kids. Because fragrance is so ubiquitous, it’s good common sense to minimize your kid’s contact with it if and where you can.”

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Sea Change: Chemical fragrances may prove hazardous to health
http://www.pressherald.com/2014/09/07/sea-change-chemical-fragrances-may-prove-hazardous-to-health/

… “Take benzaldehyde, which adds a scent of almonds to cleaning and personal care products. The SDS cautions that “inhalation of high concentrations may cause central nervous system effects characterized by nausea, headache, dizziness, unconsciousness and coma. May cause respiratory tract irritation. May cause narcotic effects in high concentration.” …

How Toxins Are Changing Childhood
http://www.kiwimagonline.com/toxins

… “As environmental exposures have risen, so have the rates of autism, ADHD, child- hood cancer, depression, anxiety, early puberty, and obesity. In 2014, Dr. Landrigan and Phillippe Grandjean, M.D., an adjunct professor of environmental health at the Harvard School of Public Health, published a paper in the journal The Lancet calling the effects on children’s cognitive development a “silent pandemic of neurodevelopmental toxicity.” Scientists don’t throw around the word “pandemic” lightly. They do it to get our attention. And they want to get our attention not just because chemicals are everywhere but because babies and young children—whose cells are rapidly dividing, whose brains and organs are still developing, whose hormones are changing—are uniquely, worryingly vulnerable to their pernicious effects.” …

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Fragrance Fact Sheet

from the Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health & Environment

Download a high quality PDF of the Fragrance Fact Sheet by the Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health & Environment from the link below:
http://www.healthyenvironmentforkids.ca/sites/healthyenvironmentforkids.ca/files/CPCHE_FactsFragrancesEN.pdf

 Choose to be fragrance-free.

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