What You Smell can Kill You
By Bernie on 24 Nov 2008
There's nothing wrong with opening your window to the natural fragrance of flowers, however spraying room fresheners, perfumes and deodorants is dangerous to your health - very dangerous. I have written, "It is unhealthy to your lungs (and your lover's) to sleep in a room where perfume has been sprayed" [The Correct Way to Apply Perfume]. I have warned my readers that "Candles can generate a significant amount of soot. This soot damages the walls, floors and ceilings of your home as well as your personal belongings and your lungs [There is nothing more insidious than candles].
It is even worse if you have puppies or young children in the home. Their small, developing lungs cannot handle the chemical fumes you so flagrantly spray around. They can even die:
Sky News, Boy Died After Spraying Deodorant
A coroner in Britain has blamed the death of a 12-year-old boy on his excessive use of spray-on deodorant.
It seems a volatile agent in the spray upset the boy's heart rhythm, but air quality experts say the boy's death is no reason to avoid the products.
Daniel Hurley was using Lynx spray-on deodorant in the bathroom of his Derbyshire home when he collapsed in January.
He died five days later in hospital because from a cardiac arrhythmia, or abnormal heart rhythms.
His father Robert Hurley told the coronial inquest that Daniel was a fit and healthy young man who was proud of his appearance, and lavish in his use of hair gels and deodorants, which he often sprayed all over his clothes.
By spraying the deodorant in a confined space, the coroner found, the concentration of solvents affected the 12-year-old's heart.
His death followed a previous incident several weeks earlier, when he had collapsed in the bathroom but immediately recovered.
Here is a video of the type of advertisement that encourages young men to overspray themselves.
Of course, millions of people use fragrance sprays without dying, but actually death is just the canary in the mine. Hundreds of millions who use perfumed sprays, deoderants, room fresheners, candles, and other stink-pots end up with asthma which now affects 1 in 4 urban children [Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology]. It doesn't affect farm kids because they don't need perfumed sprays to stink up their homes. They open the windows to the flowers outside.
Despite the protestations of the fragrance industry that these sprays are safe if used as directed, it should be noted that it is almost impossible to use these products properly.
Do not use in confined spaces without ventilation. That is, do not use in a room with 4 walls smaller than a warehouse without a special industrial blower to circulate the air. Interestingly, in most homes the room most likely to be a small confined space with poor ventilation is also the room with the largest number of perfumed items, the bathroom.
Do not use around children or pets. That is, go to the top of some mountain alone.
Do not spray on clothing, furniture, beds, tables, etc. That is, do not use in a home.
If you do not care about your own health, then at least have some pity on your children or pets who have no say in your stupidity and ignorance and are stuck living with you and your chemical aerosols.
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