I have a particularly irksome pet peeve. Irksome to me and irksome to the people with which I share air space. Well, maybe not as much to those people because I rarely say anything about it. I usually (but not always) suffer in silence. Stupid? Yes. Diplomatic? Maybe.

The thing is, fragrances are unregulated. And by that I don’t mean that I think they should be outlawed in public places (although the thought does delight me). I mean that there are no regulatory agencies that oversee what goes into fragrance compounds and whether or not all of those ingredients (including the end result) are detrimental to health (and I don’t only mean humans’ health). According to my research (which is extensive), many of those ingredients are decidedly unhealthy … for a lot of living things.

Fragrance manufacturers make a lot of money because, let’s face it, synthetic fragrances are in just about everything these days including something as stupid (in my opinion) as bleach. The fragrance manufacturers use some of that money to lobby law makers and continue to be exempt from putting ingredient labels on their products (perfumes, colognes and the like). Furthermore, manufacturers of other products who use those fragrances are not required to list the ingredients in the fragrances they add to their body lotions, hair gels, laundry detergents, cleaning products, plug-ins, etc.

Their main argument is that fragrances are not ingested. And yes, no one eats those products. But they are inhaled. And from my point of view and judging by how easily they harm me (migraine headaches, breathing difficulties, cognitive impairment, loss of coordination and balance), I might as well be eating them.

Just because something does not enter a body through the mouth does not mean it does not enter the body. We absorb all sorts of chemicals through our skin as well.

So just yesterday evening, my husband had to leave work early because the two front desk ladies decided to clean the floor. They prefer to use a PineSol product that has some sort of fragrance in it that is absolutely horrible. He couldn’t get out of the office quite fast enough because he had to finish an important telephone call he was in the middle of when they got started with the mopping. They do have another product they can use that bothers my husband and me a lot less, but they won’t use it.

By the end of the call, he couldn’t come up with the words he needed. Despite the temperature being right at freezing, he drove home with all the windows open in his car. Even so, when he got home, I couldn’t get near him. He stripped and he took all his clothing downstairs to the laundry. He took a bath so he could soak for a while to get as much off of his skin as possible and washed his hair.

I believe we have a right to know what is in the things we are inhaling daily. I also believe that if these ingredients were listed, and also if people read those lists, they would be appalled and possibly stop using the product.

I have little hope that things will change. At least not until people start dying from synthetic fragrances and there is direct proof that is the cause.

And that’s my thought for the day.

The above photo is courtesy of Madison Mae