Non-toxic Air Freshener Guide

1. Aura Cacia / 2. Eco-Me / 3. Moso / 4. Christina Maser

When I started dating Daylon, I loved that his bachelor pad always smelled so nice, thanks to a prominent Glade plug-in in his entryway. Once I learned about what was in that air freshener, I promptly unplugged it. This meant that our apartment began smelling like whatever we’d last cooked—wonderful on the rare occasion when I baked an apple crisp, and less awesome after the more common meal of pan-fried salmon and steamed broccoli.

A Brief History of Air Fresheners

The use of household air fresheners, in one form or another, has been around for thousands of years.

Incense, one of the most ancient forms of air fresheners, is burned so that the smoke can mask other, less pleasant odors. Most modern air fresheners employ the same method (masking), but unlike the burning of incense, they disperse masking agents in other ways, and with a far more sophisticated use of chemistry. (By the way, just because we’ve been burning incense for many centuries does not mean it’s a great idea. Burnt airborne particulates, from incense to cigarettes to auto exhaust, are always bad to inhale, no matter the form.)

Since the 1940s, air freshener manufacturers have blended various chemical agents and tinkered with a variety of dispersal techniques in order to market products that don’t involve burning. This might seem like a step in the right direction, but the chemical agents used are often far less benign than you’d hope.

Why Modern Air Fresheners Stink

Modern chemistry has shown us that certain chemical agents, when atomized and inhaled, are capable of blocking our smell receptors, thus blunting our ability to detect odor.

Other air fresheners coat our nasal passages with an oily film, and many still just cover up the original odor with better-smelling scents.

A minority of air fresheners actually break down the offensive odor, and even those ones generally contain a heavy dose of chemicals.

What’s Wrong with Conventional Air Fresheners?

A regular run-of-the-mill air freshener will probably contain at least one of the following scary chemicals:

• Phthalates. Synthetic fragrances usually contain phthalates, and most of us know that these are bad—linked with early puberty, autism, obesity, and birth defects. You won’t see “phthalate” on a label; it’ll just say “fragrance” or perhaps “parfum.”
• PEG-40. The Environmental Working Group considers this polymer to be moderately hazardous to human health.
• 1,4-dichlorobenzene (1,4-DCB).1,4-DCB is reasonably anticipated to a human carcinogen, and has been shown to cause kidney and testicular cancer in rats. It also has been shown to cause reduced lung function and increased asthma rates in humans.

Air fresheners may also contain some really gross chemicals that won’t show up on the label. A 2007 study tested 74 air freshening products and measured the concentration of VOCs in the air after use. They reported that a total of more than 350 different chemicals and allergens were detected, including (but not limited to!) benzene, formaldehyde, styrene, and phthalates.

Spray bottles (aerosol) cause additional health risks due to ingredients used as propellants, such as butane and propane.

How to Find a Natural Air Freshener

Rather than masking odors with other, more potent odors, or disabling your sense of smell all together, there are ways to absorb unwanted odors. Sodium carbonate (otherwise known as baking soda) has been safely used as an odor sponge for generations with no known ill effects. There are also ways to employ specific types of charcoal products to scrub unwanted odors from indoor air (learn about these below, under The Good Stuff).

Of course, our modern world is a considerably more toxic place than the one in which our ancestors evolved. This is especially true indoors, where the combination of air-tight homes and toxic agents (such as cleaning products and off-gassing furniture and carpets) is a real health risk, especially when we consider how much of our lives we spend indoors.

But back to commercial air fresheners…The good news is that there are regulations regarding what can and cannot go into them. The bad news is that there are gaping loopholes in these regulations, the most obvious of which is “trade secrets.” This allows companies to refuse to name all the ingredients in an air freshener, and without this disclosure, it becomes very challenging to figure out if your air freshener is toxic just by looking at the label.

We’ve done the research for you here, so read on for which natural air fresheners are truly safe and effective.

Make Your Own Natural Air Fresheners

• Gimme the Good Stuff readers tend to be more inclined to tackle DIY projects than we are. For those folks, here’s a list of cool (and amusing!) alternative natural air freshener ideas.
• Sometimes I will make the effort to simmer spices on the stovetop—clove and orange peels, for instance, lend a really nice aroma to my apartment. Just be sure to keep enough water in the pot so that your homemade potpourri doesn’t burn.
• You can also burn a fragrant, natural candle. Sunbeam beeswax candles earn Good Stuff approval.

Want to know more? Here are great resources on…

• Indoor air pollution
• Phthalates
• The dangers of common household dust