Environmental Effects of Air Fresheners

Air fresheners have become a household product in most homes today.  More and more types of air fresheners hit the market every month, ranging from plug-ins to scented candles to sprays.  Spray air fresheners use aerosol cans to admit their fragrance.  Febreze, Oust, Glade, and many other air fresheners have capitalized on the recent boom in air fresheners to produce many kinds of sprays that sanitize, de-odorize, and come in various scents.  But are these air fresheners as innocent as their manufacturers would have you believe?

Why the sudden obsession with air fresheners?  Were Americans really that smelly without Febreze?  Marketers would like you to think so.  The increase in advertisements for people to smell “clean” air has expanded manufacturers’ range of costumers.  According to the New York TImes, air fresheners started in the 1950s with Glade, marketed at suburban families to get rid of cooking and tobacco smells.  View one of the first Glade commercials, where air fresheners are marketed towards women to make their homes smell fresh.  Since then, the air freshener industry has flourished.  Americans spent $1.7 billion on air fresheners in 2003.  Now, marketers have targeted a newer consumer base: college kids.  Procter and Gamble introduced Febreze in 2004 after the market for air fresheners grew.  The company put marketing and money behind Febreze, and sales of the whole industry increased 50%, or $600 million, from 2003 to 2007.  Febreze is popular with college kids who go out to bars and are left with clothes that smell like smoke.  Procter and Gamble created Febreze ads targeted towards this demographic, using 20-somethings to make Febreze seem cool.  In fact, one of the first products Procter and Gamble designed was made to look like a CD player.                    

            In 2006, over 1,000 air fresheners hit the market.  Companies say they are responding to consumer demand and that fragrance is an expression of individuality.  But are companies responding to consumer demand, or are consumers responding to the onslaught of marketing techniques and advertisements thrown at them?  Glade increased spending by $30 million a year after Febreze was put on the market.  Febreze commercials make up 30% of air freshener commercials, and Procter and Gamble spent $58 million for Febreze commercials in nine months of 2006, while SC Johnson lagged slightly behind, spending $55 million.  Companies aren’t just marketing towards the general public; they’re targeting tweens, teenagers, and college kids.  SC Johnson has a Scented Oil Light Show for tweens with lights and scents like Berry Burst.  The company even developed a website for the Light Show and conducted a contest to win a day with High School Musical star Vanessa Anne Hudgens.  Glade Create-a-Scent Plug-Ins attract young people by allowing them to create their own scents.  Air Wick has animated animals in their commercials.  Teenagers have more buying power today than they ever have, and they’re spending some of their money on air fresheners.

            Another factor playing into the “scent” craze is the recent popularity of aromatherapy.  The idea that scent has power over moods is an ancient idea and has recently become a popular idea in the West.  Companies are tapping into this aromatherapy movement, releasing all kinds of scent and air freshening products.  Consumers use air fresheners as aromatherapy  to create a certain ambiance.  

            By pouring money into advertisements and marketing, companies are using the media to construct an image of how happy and clean air fresheners make people.  Consumers feel they need air fresheners, or else their house may smell bad.  Marketing creates the social force of needing an air freshener in every house, and eventually, every room.  Using air fresheners from aerosol cans can be especially harmful to the environment, due to both the ingredients inside and the can itself.  

In 1931, Norwegian engineer Eric Rotheim created the first design of the aerosol can.  The U.S. military in WWII used the cans to dispense insecticide.  The basic idea behind the aerosol can is that a fluid is stored under high pressure and then used to propel another fluid out of the can. Until the 1980s, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were used in many aerosol cans.  CFCs were proven to be extremely harmful to the ozone layer, and in the Montreal Protocol of 1989, seventy countries agreed to phase out CFC use over the next decade.  Since then, their use in aerosol cans has decreased substantially.

Inside the aerosol can, there are two fluids: one that boils below room temperature, the propellant, and one that boils at a higher temperature, the product.  There are two systems of aerosol cans: the compressed-gas system and the liquefied gas system.  Check out How Stuff Works to find out more information on aerosol cans.  

The two systems that are used in aerosol cans to spray the ingredients inside are the compressed-gas system and the liquefied-gas system.

Compressed-gas System: First, the liquid product is poured into the can.  Then the can is sealed, and a gaseous propellant is pumped through the valve system at a high pressure in order to push the product down.  A plastic tube runs from the bottom of the can to a valve system at the top of the can.  The valve system has a small headpiece with a channel running from an inlet near the bottom of the headpiece to a small nozzle at the top of the can.  A spring pushes up the headpiece to block the channel inlet.  When the headpiece is pushed down, the inlet slides open, creating a passage.  The high-pressure propellant gas drives the liquid product up the tube and out the nozzle, and the nozzle atomizes the product (breaks it up into tiny drops). 

Liquefied-gas System: The liquefied-gas system is similar to the compressed-gas system, but is the more popular of the two aerosol can systems.  The propellant is a liquefied gas and remains a liquid at all times.  The set up of the liquefied-gas system has the same design as the compressed-gas system.  The product is poured in, and the can is sealed.  Then the propellant is pumped in under high pressure so as to prevent the propellant from expanding into gas.  Then the valve opens; the pressure on the liquid propellant decreases, causing the propellant to boil.  Particles break free to form a layer of gas at the top of the can.  This pushes the liquid product and propellant up the tube to the nozzle.  When the liquid goes through the nozzle, the propellant expands to gas to either create a fine spray with the product or form foam.  

Aerosol cans are produced though aluminum processing.  Aluminum is either made from bauxite ore (primary aluminum refining) or aluminum scrap (secondary aluminum production).  Due to the expense of refining aluminum, 40% of aluminum in the US is recovered for secondary refining.  Major primary aluminum producers locate in low energy costs areas, such as the Northwest and the Ohio River Valley, due to high-energy requirements involved in primary aluminum production.  Secondary producers locate near industrial centers like California and the Great Lakes.  The EPA explains how aluminum is processed in specific ways.

Primary Aluminum Refining

            First, alumina is extracted from bauxite ore using the Bayer Process [Finely crushed bauxite is mixed with sodium hydroxide and put in a digester and with added heat and pressure, the aluminum oxide is evaporated off and condensed.  The aluminum oxide is crystallized in a precipitation tank, and the crystals are washed and dewatered].  The aluminum oxide is reduced to aluminum metal using the Hall-Hercoult process [Aluminum oxide is placed in an electrolytic cell with molten cryolite, and a carbon rod in the cell is charged, creating a reaction.  This produces carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and aluminum.  The aluminum sinks to the bottom and is removed and melted].  The molten aluminum is mixed with alloys and cast into ingots (bars). 

            Pollution:  Air emissions from bauxite and aluminum oxide are usually caught by air emissions equipment, but air emissions from the reduction of aluminum oxide are usually able to escape.  These emissions consist of fluorides, alumina, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide. 

Secondary Aluminum Production

            Scrap aluminum is melted in gas or oil furnaces.  Impurities are removed with chlorine or other chemicals. 

            Pollution: Air emissions depend on the scraps used, but can include hydrogen chloride and metal chlorides, aluminum oxide, and metal compounds.  Aluminum fluoride can substitute chlorine to decrease air emissions.

In addition to the pollution created by aluminum processing, aerosol cans also contribute to pollution due to the difficulty of recycling them. 

On top of the pollution created by the the production of the aerosol can, there are also environmental problems regarding the disposal of aerosol can air fresheners.  Most people throw away air fresheners, leaving them and their harmful ingredients inside a waste pile for years and years.  For those who want to recycle their aerosol air fresheners, the University of Wisconsin lays out the steps for recycling.  Consumers must puncture and drain the can, collecting all liquid.  Then they have to treat the gases and vapors with a carbon filter, which becomes hazardous waste.  Finally, the can is able to be sent to a recycling plant and recycled as scrap metal.  Transporting the aerosol cans to recycling plants creates even more pollution and environmental harm. 

The production and selling of aerosol air fresheners requires a lot of transportation.  First, the materials to produce the cans must be sent to aluminum production companies, located usually in California, the Great Lakes, the Northwest, or the Ohio River Valley.  Then the cans are transported to the air freshener manufacturers.  Febreze’s manufacturer, Procter and Gamble, is located in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Glade’s manufacturer, SC Johnson, Inc, is located in Wisconsin.  The finished products then travel all around the nation to stores, where people buy them and transport them to their homes.  Lastly, if the consumer chooses to recycle, the can must be transported to a recycling plant.  For more information on metal recycling plants, click here: Metals.

The ingredients inside the aerosol air fresheners also contribute to environmental pollution.  For more information on the ingredients, read my posts on air freshener ingredients.

The US Department of Health and Human Services Household Products Database cites that the only ingredients in Febreze Air Effects are fragrance, odor eliminator derived from corn, ethanol/SD Alcohol 40, nitrogen, water, and quality control agents.  In Glade Aerosol, there is only water and hydrocarbon propellant.  Look on the labels and this is all you will find.  So how can these products be harmful? 

Last year, the National Resources Defense Council, the National Center for Healthy Housing, the Sierra Club, and the Alliance for Healthy Homes all petitioned the EPA to crack down on air fresheners in a TSCA Section 21 Petition.  They wanted the EPA to increase regulations due to the harmful chemicals linked to cancer in animals, developmental problems with babies, and breathing problems.  They also wanted the government to require manufacturers to conduct safety tests and give the results to regulators.  In particular, the agencies wanted the manufacturers to list all the products’ ingredients on labels.  Three Walgreen brand air fresheners were pulled off shelves nationwide as a result of this petition.  However, the EPA denied the petition, citing that the TSCA Section 21 doesn’t apply to the petitioners’ request for a call-in under TSCA section 8 ( c ). For more on the petition, click here: SFGate. 

According to the EPA, the same agency that denied the Section 21 Petition, most store bought air fresheners can have formaldehyde, petrochemicals, pthalates, p-dichlorobenzene, organic gases, terpenes, and aerosol pollutants in them.  In 2006, the University of California at Berkeley found that ethylene-based glycol ethers are also in air fresheners.  The EPA classified ethylene-based glycol ethers as hazardous air pollutants.  The US National Institute of Health Sciences found that chemicals in air fresheners can decrease lung capacity and may increase respiratory diseases. The EPA has not advised against buying air fresheners because the studies simulated use higher levels of indoor ozone and air freshener consumption than normal homes. For a full look at the EPA Indoor Air Quality Report on the following chemicals and more click here:  Indoor Air Quality.

            Petrochemicals: chemicals made from oil, natural gas or other fossil fuels that are proven to pollute the environment.

            P-dichlorobenzene: causes eye and upper respiratory tract irritation, skin irritation, headaches, nausea, blood disorders, and liver and kidney damage with chronic exposure according to the US Department of Labor. 

           Pthalates: chemicals that can lower sperm count in men and lead to genital changes in male infants. For more on pthalates, watch this short video: Pthalates 

           Terpenes: found in citrus oils, terpenes react with the ozone to form formaldehyde.

           Formaldehyde: Cited by the EPA as a colorless, pungent-smelling gas that can cause watery eyes, burning sensations in the eyes and throat, nausea, coughing, fatigue, wheezing, skin rash, allergic reactions, and difficulty breathing.  In higher concentrations, formaldehyde can trigger asthma attacks in people with asthma.  It can also cause cancer in animals and possibly humans.  Formaldehyde can create other organic gases, which are also harmful.

           Organic Gases: Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) emitted as gases.  VOCs are in much higher concentration inside than outside homes.  Elevated concentrations can persist in the air long after they appear.  VOCs can cause eye, nose, and throat irritation, headaches, loss of coordination, nausea, and damage to the liver, kidneys, and the central nervous system, and cancer in animals and humans.  Key signs of exposure are conjunctival irritation, nose and throat discomfort, headaches, allergic skin reactions, dyspnea, nausea, fatigue, emesis, epistaxis, and dizziness.  The extent and nature of health effects depends on the level of exposure, time exposed, and toxicity of the organic.  No standards have been set for VOCs in non-industrial settings, but the OSHA regulates formaldehyde (also a VOC) as a carcinoged. 

In order to help decrease the amount of harmful chemicals and pollutants in your home, try some of the the alternative air fresheners suggested in my Alternatives post.

Considering the harm air fresheners have on the environment and your health, they should be discarded for safer, more earth-friendly alternatives.  Some obvious, and less harmful, alternative air fresheners that can be found anywhere are:

Potpourri- just dry your own flowers, add a cinnamon stick, lavender, or whatever combination you like.

Dried Herbs- can keep clothes fresh smelling; add scented oil for a stronger scent.

Pomanders- made with an orange or lemon and cloves, these scented balls keep their scents for long periods of time. See Pecuniarities on how to make these harmless air fresheners!

Sweet Grass- if you live in the Charleston area, a great local, natural air freshener is sweet grass. Native to the Lowcountry, these fragrant leaves can be dried, braided, and turned into baskets.  Burn them dried as incense, keep them braided in drawers and closets, or keep baskets around the house.  Baskets and leaves can be found down Market Street or the Farmer’s Market in Marion Square, or buy seeds and grow your own sweet grass in a long, shallow flower box.  Sweet Grass is extremely winter hardy as they go dormant to the roots during cold weather, so no green thumb is needed!  For more information on Sweet Grass, visit Ecoseeds.

Here are some more alternatives to air fresheners and how to make them: essortment.