Here’s the truth. Fragrances are not safe unless they are made from 100% organic essential oils. Period.
Fragrance is an often-overlooked health offender. Take a moment and think about just how many things you use every single day that “smell good.” Just about everything you come into contact with is fragranced in some way, from your body and face lotions to your floor cleaner to the diapers and baby wipes you use. Most notably, air freshener and candles are usually engineered so that their fragrance will disseminate throughout your home.
It’s popular to think that fragrances have gotten “better” over the years, which is to say that we can now buy lower-priced products that smell better and have more pleasing fragrance formulas. The interesting thing about fragrance is that while some high-end or luxury goods might smell more expensive than lower-priced items, the fragrances used are very seldom “better” than those used in lower-priced candles and air fresheners.
“Fragrance” is one of the least controlled substances in the United States. Some sources report that as much as 95% of the chemicals in the average fragrance are synthetic and derived from petrochemicals. Many of these include known carcinogens or otherwise harmful substances such as phthalates and benzine derivatives. Not only are some of these substances known to cause cancer, but they can also cause problems such as birth defects and allergies. Many of them are even cited on the EPA’s hazardous waste list.
“But they can’t be that bad!” This is what a part of you must be thinking right now. I mean, these things are sitting in our cabinets right now, right? So yes, perhaps if we are exposed to these chemicals in large quantities over extended periods of time, they could be harmful. But the situation can’t be as dire as we’re making it out to be. Right?
Wrong! In 2011, a committee formed by the National Academy of Sciences confirmed that styrene, a chemical found in a wide variety of products used in the average American home, is “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.” The committee found “compelling evidence” that styrene can cause cancer, and even went so far as to suggest that styrene should be listed as a Known Human Carcinogen. This label signals that a substance should be strongly regulated and controlled.
Upon further research, styrene was found in car exhaust and cigarette smoke. Can you guess what else it was found in? Styrene can be found in just about any product that list “fragrance” as an ingredient on the label. Because the FDA has neither the authority or the financial resources to regulate the almost 3,000 ingredients that can potentially go into “fragrance,” they simply don’t regulate it at all.
Are you scared yet? It’s enough to keep you up at night, isn’t it? And what’s the solution? Do we simply rid our homes of everything that lists “fragrance” as an ingredient on the back of it?
It might sound crazy, but our suggestion? Yes. That’s exactly what you need to do.
It won’t happen overnight. Most of us will need to spend a lot of time and a bit of money (although less than we may think) transitioning from a house full of chemical and synthetic fragrances to one that is clean and completely harmless to ourselves and our families. But by taking a baby step each day toward ridding your home of synthetic and chemical substances, you are taking a stand on the issue of health in our nation, and in our world. Your dollar counts, and when you replace harmful fragrances with natural ones, farmed and manufactured by companies that care about purity and sustainability, you’re not only making a statement about where your money goes. You are making the statement that you affirm life!
Now that you understand how harmful artificial fragrances are, we urge you to join us in taking action against disease, against death, against infertility and birth defects and nervous-disorders. One of the many blessings about living in our modern world is the abundance of goods we enjoy. One of the difficulties inherent in this abundance is the enormity of information we are forced to understand in order to choose the healthy, safe option for ourselves and our families. Do something with that information.
Although Sanari Candles are scented, they are made with ZERO artificial fragrances and are created with 100% plant based Coconut & non-gmo soy wax infused with blends of essential oils from organic farming. Shop the collection today.
Sources:
https://www.ewg.org/enviroblog/2014/08/expert-panel-confirms-fragrance-ingredient-can-cause-cancer#.WnjQmpM-fUI
https://www.nap.edu/catalog/18725/review-of-the-styrene-assessment-in-the-national-toxicology-program-12th-report-on-carcinogens
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/maria-rodale/five-mustknows-on-the-dan_b_4737654.html