In the past few weeks, I have spoken to two groups about creating the “Clean, Green Home.” When asked how they decide that their house is clean, the majority of those responding said it was based on how their home smells. Just like women since the mid-1900′s, we’ve been led to believe that the stronger the products smell, the cleaner and more germ-free they make our homes. Who doesn’t associate the smell of Pine Sol, bleach and/or ammonia with a cleaner kitchen, bathroom, or house? Yet, depending on the source of that smell, our homes may actually pose more risks to our health after cleaning than before we started! This is a painful realization, especially when who we care about most are the families we’re trying to protect within our homes.
The reality is that many of the commercial cleaning products we use in our homes contain fragrance, dyes and chemicals which can irritate eyes, skin and respiratory tracts. Is it necessary to shed tears or cough as we clean our homes in order to feel they are truly clean? I don’t think so. These cleaning products may also be emitting VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) which are gases that come from certain solids or liquids. The potential hazards of these irritants and gases is up to ten times higher indoors than outdoors. And not only do they irritate, but we take those toxins into our bodies through our skin and lungs via the indoor air and contact within our homes as well as into our bodies through our home’s water supply.
Consumers are becoming wiser and many of us try to use products that do not contain harmful chemicals. As consumers, though, we have to be very careful. Many manufacturers are now advertising that their products contain essential oils or they put scents such as lavender, geranium, lemon verbena, and more in their products and tell us they are safe and will make everything “fresh and clean.” Are these products any safer than the ammonia we used to clean with? It depends on where that smell comes from. If that scent is derived from a chemical formulation, we are still being exposed to fragrance which can irritate eyes and lungs and may still be contributing to the VOC’s in our homes.
We have attached “smell” to not only our cleaning products, but our personal care products as well. Again, in order to have that sense of clean, we often associate it with whatever smell has become part of our bathing regimen. And just like with cleaning products, that smell has really little, if nothing, to do with being clean. We even have to be cautious when buying “unscented” products. Often a chemical formulation is used to mask the smells of the other ingredients. It may smell benign but be exposing us to the same risks as other chemical fragrance.
In my own home, I attempt to live as chemical free as possible. I avoid chemicalized food and chemical body or cleaning products. I’ve been doing this for long enough now that when I do unintentionally purchase a cleaning product with chemically-made fragrance, I feel the effects of it as I breathe–it causes an immediate irritation to my lungs. I have become quite sensitive to chemical perfumed smells. The local drugstore smells like a chemical factory to me and I hate going down the soap aisle of our big-name grocery store. I immediately feel the effects in my lungs.
I have to admit though that when I smell someone’s clothes which have been washed in one of the brands I used long ago, I feel nostalgic. And when I smell the lingering fragrance of someone whose clothes were tossed in the dryer with a name-brand dryer sheet, it evokes a sentiment in me that these clothes were washed and dried with love. The smell of someone’s hair washed with one of the brands I used long ago can also bring me back to memories of the smell of “clean” and “caring.” All of these trigger memories in me of what something clean was “supposed” to smell like: the smell of soaps I used growing up and earlier in my adult life, the smell of laundry fresh out of the drier, the smell of freshly shampooed hair–the smells that the soap manufacturers programmed us into thinking clean smelled like!
A Time Magazine article by Coeli Carr, dated April 12, 2004, asked the question, “Why is it so easy to lead consumers around by their noses?” The article says “the answer, according to Mandy Aftelier, a natural perfumer and consultant based in Berkeley, Calif., and the author of Essence and Alchemy: A Book of Perfume, says ‘Nothing changes your consciousness quicker than a smell. Putting scent in your life, even over mundane tasks, is a good thing to do. It improves the quality of your life in small ways, and those small ways add up.’ Studies have shown that inhaling pleasant natural scents can affect brain activity, alleviating stress and lifting mood.”
So, now as we’re becoming more tuned into the smells of essential oils and the benefits of aromatherapy–chemically-induced smells of lavender, rose, magnolia, and more are being used to reprogram us into thinking that anything smelling like essential oils is good for us. The manufacturers have us believing that all “aromatherapy” is good for us, no matter how it was derived–those smells associated with relaxation will make our lives better and our cleaning experience more wonderful (even desirable) no matter what. That would be true if all these cleaning products were actually made with real, pure essential oils. However, if that smell was chemically made, then we need to think twice before buying the product.
The really ironic thing about all of this is that clean doesn’t actually have a smell! But getting used to living with our own natural smells or the unmasked smells in our homes may be just more than most of us are ready for. That being the case, we can at least strive to avoid those artificial “clean” smells and choose products that are scented strictly with real essential oils. At least by limiting our exposure to chemically created smells, we are reducing our exposure to cancer-causing agents and ingredients that can contribute to skin and respiratory conditions and diseases. That clean smell may have a price that goes far beyond the cost of the product–for me it is a price that is definitely not worth it.
