Chemical Hazards and Human Health

            For my assignment this week I am to access the potential health risks of some common personal and household care products. Some of these risks are present from the actual product while others from the container. I will choose a couple products I use personally (to make things more interesting) and find a couple specific common chemicals found in them and research them to access their risk levels and of course I will be providing adequate evidence to support my findings. There are numerous potential risks that can be associated with a variety of chemicals found in these common products that can range from respiratory effects to birth-defects. They can also be a carcinogen and cause or promote a cancer’s growth while others can damage the immune system. The list of possible short and long-term risks associated from the chemicals found in many common products is quite staggering.

            When trying to find common chemicals from some common household products I turned my head slightly and picked up a can of Febreze: Air Effects (If you want to get specific the scent is Alaskan Springtime, which I highly doubt truly smells like spring in Alaska, but that is another topic entirely).  It was the first thing I picked up but the reason I picked this product to examine…well I will explain that shortly after I explain the chemicals (Yeah, trying to keep you reading).

            The first chemical I researched was limonene. Per such sites as this classify it as a VOC (Volatile Organic Compound). VOC’s include a massive array of chemicals and are found in a variety of products such as air fresheners and perfumes and can have short and long-term negative health effects. I had to be very careful which sites I drew information from as some of them were vehemently trying to defend this chemical and how it is much safer than many other solvents (such as this site ). Limonene itself as many sources explained (this  is the one I am paraphrasing here) is a scent ingredient and solvent that is naturally occurring in the rind of many citrus fruits. And when stored and exposed to sunlight and air, it degrades to numerous oxidation products which act as skin and respiratory irritants. The above source listed a variety of issues with Limonene which is a VOC. It also seemed like a decent source as it listed numerous references. It shows limited evidence of immune system and toxicity as an allergen and is also classified as an irritant. And in one or more animal studies it showed developmental effects at high doses. The site also explained that it is not classifiable as a human carcinogen (yay, I won’t get cancer…at least from this).  

            The second chemical I looked up is again another VOC called n-butanol. This site, which I found  here was quite informative on what it was and potential risks involving it, and should be a good source as it was linked as good information from a government source.  But first a brief definition of the substance. It is a flammable colorless liquid that has a characteristic banana-like smell.  It is mostly used in cosmetics, solvents, textiles, cleaners, floor polishes, gasoline, and coatings (list is a little longer). The lists for this chemical are quite more severe than that of the first chemical I researched. This one explains of the basic eye irritation and that overexposure can cause death, though many things in excess cause death. Repeated exposure, again as per the above listed source, can cause depression of the central nervous system but will slowly go away after the exposure is removed and the body recovers (found that quite interesting).  The site explain that this is often observed with short-chain aliphatic alcohols. The chemical also causes birth defects or malformations in rates when the exposures are great enough to cause significant toxicity to the mother.

            Now on to why I chose these chemicals. Well for the assignment we have to choose a specific product from our house and relate it to a chemical we researched. So I thought…why not just pick the product first and find the chemicals that way. The problem with this came when I picked up my favorite thing ever (aside from Lysol) to make my living space smelling amazing. This product is Febreze…the major issue came to looking at the back where a brief list of ingredients/chemicals should be. Instead all I found was a list of how it contained No CFC’s or Phosphates and really only listed water, odor eliminator, fragrance (which ties into my chemicals) as ingredients. I quickly checked my Lysol and to my surprise also noticed it boasting mostly about what it could be used on and how it can kill bacteria and of course what bacteria it could kill. I decided to look up what exactly was in Febreze. This lead me to multiple sites but none I could actually definitively use as a good source UNTIL I came here which if you click on the "fragrance blends" link you are diverted to this massive array of chemicals. So I decided to find a couple that were used in many types of aerosol cans and start there. The Febreze contained both chemicals I listed and MANY (Yes, I use caps here for emphasis) others as seen in the above link.

            When researching safer alternatives I came across this site which explained that the fabric refresher is pretty safe but a good alternative to the air freshener would be the aroma pill by method. Which their link didn't work and even through other means was unable to locate it. The product may have been discontinued. So based on some of the other tips they gave, either using the fabric refresher or using a homemade powder such as the one listed here is also a safe viable option. Ingredients listed for it are:

1/2 cup of borax
1/2 cup of baking soda
1 teaspoon of cloves and/or cinnamon

            And alternatively an orange can be used instead of the spices. I may just try this when I run out of what I am currently using…if it works well I will refrain from buying most all of those Febreze products and just make my own. I would try it right now but I don’t have anything on that list except for cinnamon. Next time I am at the store I will pick them up. Overall, this has been quite the learning experience. I really never thought about my Febreze as containing chemicals that could harm me until I dug deeper. This was most likely because of the lack of information on the back of the can and also just mentioning it didn't contain certain bad things rather than listing a couple harmful chemicals it did indeed contain.