Air Fresheners Don’t Work For Eliminating Odor

Everyone wants their home to smell fresh and clean. Unfortunately, American consumers have been tricked into thinking that covering up a bad smell is the same thing as eliminating odor. Air fresheners offer a quick, easy way to mask unpleasant smells, but they do nothing to actually address the source of the problem. In fact, they emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) similar to those produced by new plastics, varnish, and many household cleaners. These VOC contaminants can cause headaches and other allergy symptoms.

Unfortunately, people tend to use more and more air “freshening” products as time goes on. This is because we get used to particular smells over time. This phenomenon is called olfactory fatigue. So, when we stop noticing the artificial fragrance in an air freshener we think it isn’t working as well as it used to. Then, we think the solution is to find new, stronger fragrances.

This is one reason many people use multiple products to try to cover up odors in the home. These can include scented commercial cleaning products, plug in fresheners, fragrance-added laundry detergent and dryer sheets – even aerosols that are sprayed directly into the air.

I just googled “aerosol air freshener MSDS” to check the ingredients in commonly used products. This is an excerpt from the material safety data sheet for the first item that came up in my search: May Cause Respiratory Irritation. Inhalation of vapors may cause respiratory irritation and dizziness, nausea or headache. Prolonged exposure above the OSHA permissible exposure limits may result in kidney and liver damage. The sheet also included this instruction: Avoid breathing product vapors or mist. How you are supposed to smell this tropical scented “air freshener” without inhaling it is not explained.

Rooting Out Odors At Their Source

Fortunately, there are many eco-friendly and safe products that can be used for household cleaning. Baking soda is a great odor absorber that can be used in the refrigerator and the garbage disposal. Vinegar and water makes a safe cleaning solution for scrubbing tubs and other bathroom fixtures. Hot steam cleaning works wonders for carpets and upholstery as long as a rinse cycle is used to remove detergent residue. Laundry can be spruced up with a cotton sachet filled with dry lavender.

When it comes to removing airborne odors, cleaning the air is also a simple process. Activated carbon filters attract and trap foul smelling contaminants. This means they aren’t just masked – they are taken out of circulation completely. The higher the surface area of the filter, the longer it will last. Carbon used in filters is processed in such a way that it is full of pores which greatly increase the total surface area that is available to trap the offending molecules in the air.

Because so much of the surface area of this type of filter is internal, the amount of carbon an air purifier contains is usually described by weight rather than size. So, you could expect to invest more initially in a filter that has 20 pounds of activated carbon than you would in one that has only 8. Learn more about carbon filtration and other technologies that reduce odors by requesting our free ebook.

Link for MSDS sheet: http://www.spartanchemical.com/sfa/MSDSRep.nsf/DocId/da027aa7af5b54a68525741600673b87!OpenDocument

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