Tag Archives: STINK

Unilever to Disclose Some (but not all) AXE and Other Fragrance Ingredients

Unilever, the company responsible for making disabling products like AXE (aka LYNX) has announced they will be expanding their product ingredient lists  to include fragrance ingredients above 0.01 percent (100 parts per million) in a product’s formulation (via the SmartLabel app, but not on the actual labels *)

Here’s what we need to know:

* 20 parts per million (ppm) is the FDA’s standard for ‘gluten-free’ *

Which means that people who are allergic or “sensitive” can suffer serious and life threatening effects from substances at well below 100 ppm, and we still won’t know what is causing the symptoms, or what we need to avoid to stay alive.

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This plan may help people who aren’t knowingly or immediately affected by fragrance exposures to choose their products more wisely, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough to help those of us who are disabled by or have life threatening reactions to their products.

Edited to add:

Unilever’s fragrance transparency is a major green-wash at 100 ppm, when gluten-free has to be below 20 ppm, and people with isothiazolinone (aka MI) allergy react to as little as 3 ppm, perhaps less.

Also,  long-term health limit for fumes from dry-cleaning solvents has dropped from 20 parts per billion to an infinitesimal 2 parts per billion because long-term exposure to even very low concentrations can result in cancer, as well as fetal development problems for pregnant women.

Other interesting tidbits about Unilever:

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Fragrance Chemicals: Weapons of Environmental and Human Destruction

We are surrounded by and saturated with fragrance chemicals now.

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Fragrance Chemicals:
Weapons of Destruction

(if you have been impacted, you know this is not hyperbole)

Most fragrances are now are made from oil and gas based chemicals.

They are in our personal care, laundry, and cleaning products. They are in garbage bags, candles, and shoes. They are in toys, fire-place logs, and diapers. They are in toilet paper, stationary, and stickers. They are in clothing, pillows, and jewellery. They are in foods, plastics, and medicines. They are in kitty litter, trash bags,  and vacuum cleaner bags. They are even in pesticides, where they are regulated by the EPA, but they are not regulated by anyone when they are added to all the other products we use and are exposed to!

There’s no escaping fragrance even when housebound, because so many  deliveries of even the basics like food, arrive fragrance contaminated!

We were not designed for 24/7 exposures to toxic chemicals

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How much more evidence is needed before something is done about the human and environmental health problems caused by fragranced productss?

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Here’s an info dump with some relevant links and videos:

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Show You Care, Clear the Air!

Apparently fragranced items (including toys) are  top sellers as Christmas gifts (and for other occasions). Unless you have told everyone you know NOT to get you anything fragranced, there’s a high likelihood that you’ve recently received something aromatic, something that you may or may not understand the consequences of having and using.

Most people have no idea that these and other products that stink contain harmful chemicals that damage our health (as well as the health of future generations). We don’t know because these ingredients are secret (unlabeled), unregulated, and we have not been educated.

For those of you who are beginning to understand there’s a problem,  and having been the unfortunate recipient of a toxic gift from a well-meaning friend or family member, but have wondered what exactly you can do about it (other than thinking of regifting it * please don’t), here is an up and coming post-gift-giving-receiving activity you can take to let vendors and manufacturers know you won’t accept their toxic secrets!

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