Fw: Scents and sensitivities ~ MSNBC

February 11, 2002

----- Original Message -----

From: " ilena rose " <ilena@...>

Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2002 7:54 PM

Subject: Scents and sensitivities ~ MSNBC

http://www.msnbc.com/news/702445.asp

IN MATTERS of love, asserts an article by one of the world's leading

makers of flavors and fragrances Haarmann & Reimer, " The way to the heart

is through the nose. "

But as much as perfume can elicit pleasure, it can trigger allergies

and irritation. If your love interest suffers from asthma, rhinitis,

allergies, dermatitis or a growing range of chemical sensitivities, a

bottle of perfume may very well repel more than attract. According to some

allergists, dermatologists, pulmonary specialists and nurses, a growing

number of patients - as well as health care practitioners - seem to be

suffering from sensitivities to fragrances.

Fragrance sensitivity is also emerging as a growing workplace

allergen. " People often joke about it, people wearing offensive perfumes, "

says Loewenherz, " an industrial hygienist for the New York Committee

for Occupational Safety and Health. But, she adds, for people sensitive to

it, it's no joking matter.

Take Colburn, an Atlanta, Ga. newspaper researcher, for

example. She had to shift to the " graveyard " shift - a real hardship - to

avoid people wearing perfumes and fragranced products. " But more sensitive

people are speaking up about it, and I hope the perfume industry is

listening, " she says.

The fragrance industry says it is. Products are thoroughly tested

before being marketed to assure their health and safety, says Glenn

, spokesperson for the Research Institute for Fragrance Materials,

an industry-sponsored group that does testing of chemicals.

A COMPLEX MIXTURE

Once distilled simply from flower essences, perfumes today are

complex mixtures of natural - botanical- or animal-derived - materials and

synthetic chemicals. More than 5,000 different fragrances are used in

perfumes and skin products, in hundreds of chemical combinations, according

to the American Academy of Dermatology. But because the chemical formulas

of fragrances are considered trade secrets, companies aren't required to

list their ingredients but merely label them as containing " fragrance. "

That's a problem for the medical profession in determining

allergies, says dermatologist Maibach, a professor of dermatology at

the University of California, San Francisco. The great quantity and variety

of chemicals, as well as the absence of ingredients on the labels, makes it

difficult to pinpoint causes of allergies or irritation, he notes.

Healthy scent shopping

Tips for people who are sensitive to fragrances or don't want to offend

co-workers or spouses:

Switching to products with natural-based ingredients and less synthetic

additives may help.

Check out " The Safe Shopper's Bible: A consumer's guide to nontoxic

household products, cosmetics and food, " by Dr. Epstein.

While natural ingredients can also cause allergic reactions in some people,

there are many new products available in health food stores and from small

companies on the Internet that offer some relief.

Try soaps and lotions made of pure materials, such as oatmeal bars and

alcohol-free hair sprays. A few recommendations: Dr. Bronner's super mild

Castille and unscented baby and bar soaps, Clinique's unscented soaps and

Aveda soaps.

As for essential oils, they're purer but also potentially allergenic. But a

touch of lavender or lemon is okay.

Finally, buyer beware: Cosmetics labeled " hypoallergenic, " according to the

FDA, offer no guarantee that they won't cause reactions in sensitive

individuals. " Hypoallergenic " means only that the manufacturer feels that

the product is less likely to cause an allergic reaction.

Sources: Dr. Epstein, University of Illinois in Chicago; Daliya

Robison, Nirvana Safe Haven

The rising tide of fragrances in myriad products, from skin lotions

to tissues to cleaning products to candles, is also adding to the problem,

says NYCOSH's Loewenherz.

Additionally, about 95 percent of perfume ingredients are not

composed of flower essences or natural products as people generally

imagine, but synthesized from petrochemicals, which give off volatile

organic compounds, vapors emitted from compounds like solvents, wood

preservatives, paint strippers and dry cleaned clothing.

VOCs are known to produce eye, nose and throat irritation,

headaches, loss of coordination, nausea, damage to liver, kidney and

central nervous system, according to EPA. Some can cause cancer in animals

or are suspected or known to cause cancer in humans. And while adverse

health effects from VOCs typically occur at far higher doses than what

would be found in fragrances, they nevertheless can be potentially

dangerous in tight indoor spaces, Loewenherz says.

In the early '90s, the Environmental Protection Agency sponsored a

study to identify the compounds found in many fragrance products and

identified 100 to 200 chemicals - including fragrance chemicals, additives

and contaminants - in each. In more than half the products tests, they

found ethanol, limonene, linalool, ß-phenethyl alcohol, and ß-myrcene, few

of which have tested for cancer causing properties.

In reviewing the compounds, the researchers found " a paucity of

available data for most of the compounds reviewed. " Although the study

found " relatively low toxicities overall, " some of compounds have " toxic

effects [on animals] at low doses, " the report concluded.

Nevertheless, the researchers cautioned against panic. While the

chemicals are present in fragrances, the doses are typically not high

enough to cause health effects in humans, says Lance Wallace, the

researcher at EPA who worked on the study.

The report also suggested that further study was needed to determine

which people were at risk for developing rashes or other " sensitivities " to

certain compounds or fragrances.

A bigger problem, Wallace says, is that current testing fails to

address why some people are becoming increasingly sensitive.

" Questionnaires done on people affected by sick building syndrome,

such as those afflicted in government buildings, tend to show about 30

percent of people having reactions to chemical odors of various kinds,

including perfumes, " says Wallace. " We need better real-world exposure

studies to find out why and how we can prevent it. "

That should be an issue not just for the already chemically sensitive

but for the average healthy person as well, says Betty Bridges, a

registered nurse who founded the Fragranced Products Information Network, a

Web page with information about chemicals used in scented products and

their health effects.

Perfume doesn't just enter the body by being

inhaled, but also can be ingested or absorbed through the skin, affecting

the skin, lungs, nervous system and brain. Among trends found:

Skin allergies to scents are rising steadily (with perfume allergies

second only to nickel contact dermatitis as a cause of skin irritation).

" The vast majority of the public does not have a fragrance allergy, "

says Belsito, a dermatologist at the University of Kansas Medical

Center. However, allergic reactions to fragrances are on the rise, he says,

increasing from 9 percent to about 12 to 13 percent of dermatitis patients

over the last decade.

The incidence of respiratory sensitivity to fragrances is also growing,

although this has been less studied. For Dr. Segal, an assistant

professor of neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School, one of the more

serious health concerns is for asthmatics. If airways become constricted,

an episode can be life threatening, he says.

" Perfumes are fine for the large majority of people who do not have

asthma, and most ingredients in perfumes are probably fine even for most

people with asthma, " says Segal. The problem, he says, is that some

ingredients in perfumes trigger asthma attacks, since perfumes can contain

so many potentially allergenic ingredients that can add to other ubiquitous

irritants, from tobacco smoke to exhaust fumes.

Perfumes can also trigger migraines, according to the American Medical

Association.

Fragrances are also a growing issue for people sensitized to other

environmental chemicals. " I'm seeing more and more environmentally

sensitized people, " says Dr. Teich, an allergist who has practiced

in New York City for more than 30 years. " I suspect that's because our

environment - indoor as well as outdoor - and our food is more polluted,

and our immune and endocrine systems are simply overloaded. "

FPIN's Bridges says that complaints on health effects from

fragrances have increased during the last few years, noting that her Web

site gets 1,500 new visitors each month and that complaints to the Food and

Drug Administration, which keeps a registry on adverse reactions to

cosmetics, has jumped from 3 in 1996 to about 100 last year.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Health Network, an advocacy group based in

Larkspur, Calif., has petitioned the government, asking that synthetic

fragrances put on the market without adequate testing carry a warning

label. The group commissioned an industry laboratory specializing in tests

for the fragrance industry and found 41 ingredients they claimed were

" toxic to the skin, respiratory tract, nervous and reproductive systems,

and [in some cases] known to be carcinogens. " They also charged that

several ingredients contained " no toxicity data " or " inadequate data. "

In November 1999, the group filed a petition with the Food and Drug

Administration, the agency with jurisdiction over cosmetics, to have the

fragrance Eternity by Calvin Klein declared " misbranded. "

Since the petition was filed, says Bridges, more than 1,000

consumers with health problems from exposure to fragrances have written to

FDA support EHN's petition. To date, however, FDA has not responded to the

petition. An FDA spokesperson says it is still " under review, " but not

considered a priority.

NO PREMARKET SAFETY TESTS REQUIRED

" As a regulatory agency, we are concerned about the safety of

cosmetics, says an FDA spokesperson. But the agency has no authority to

require cosmetics to be safety tested before marketing. However, if the

ingredients and final product in a product haven't been substantiated, then

a warning label can be required on a product stating " the safety of this

product has not been determined. "

The FDA also noted that even cosmetics that claim to be " fragrance

free " can contain perfume to mask other odors: " Fragrance free " only means

that a cosmetic " has no perceptible odor. " The agency explains: " Fragrance

ingredients may be added to a fragrance-free cosmetic to mask any offensive

odor originating from the raw materials used, but in a smaller amount than

is needed to impart a noticeable scent. "

INDUSTRY'S SAFEGUARDS

Despite the lack of FDA safety testing, RIFM's provides

assurances that safety is insured in a four-step process. " First, we have a

long history of cosmetics ingredients use to go on; additionally, EPA

requires safety testing for any new chemicals coming on the market, " he

says. Additionally, " RIFM does its own safety testing of chemicals - we've

tested about 90 percent to 95 percent in use - and many fragrance and

cosmetics companies do their own testing. "

Besides this, says , FDA collects complaints from consumers,

" and from their records, that's less than 1 complaint per million users. "

Those efforts by the industry haven't stopped people from demanding

fragrance-free environments, however. Some hospitals ask staff to refrain

from using fragranced products, says Segal, because of their potential

effects on people with asthma or other conditions.

The American Nurses Association (ANA) instituted a fragrance-free

meeting policy, says Wilburn, a specialist for occupational safety

and health for ANA, " because so many nurses have been coming down with

headaches, nausea, and other adverse reactions to perfumes. "

ANA's own research, she says, found that many perfumes contain

preservatives, as well as pesticides, " specifically added to repel bugs

attracted to the scents. "

In response to the perceived problems of fragrances in the air,

says that his industry group has begun the first study to examine

fragrance inhalation. " We're spending a lot of money on this, " he says, " to

understand the systemic effects of fragrances on organs and nervous system,

what happens when fragrances are inhaled. "

To report an adverse reaction to the FDA, call FDA's Office of

Cosmetics and Colors at 1-202-401-9725, or file online. You may also send

your report in writing to: FDA, Office of Cosmetics and Colors (HFS-100),

200 C St., SW, Washington, DC 20204.

Francesca Lyman is an environmental and travel journalist and editor

of the American Museum of Natural History book, " Inside the Dzanga-Sangha

Rain Forest " (Workman, 1998).

March 1, 2002