Scents and Sensitivities

[Guest guest]

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 abeled

" 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).