Air Fresheners

Are They Harming Your Health?

Don’t you love the feeling of a just spraying air freshener? I so enjoy breathing in and smelling something pleasant as I’m sure most of you do as well. However, if you have bought your air freshener at the supermarket or Wal-Mart your mind is being tricked into thinking it is breathing in vanilla, lavender, mint or any other scent. Your air freshener is a chemical cocktail created to make us think we are smelling the scents we find pleasing yet, many of those chemicals are harmful to our health.

Air fresheners and other household chemicals are not closely regulated by the FDA so there are instances of harmful chemicals being in their products being consumed by us before anyone discovers the true impact to our health. In 2007, it was all over the news that phthalates were found in air fresheners all over the country and that they were causing severe hormone imbalances. Once it got media attention, the products were pulled off the shelves. Another harmful chemical is 1,4 DCB and this chemical is still found in products even though it has been shown to increase asthma and bronchial infections. Chemical air fresheners all aggravate our lung tissue because we are breathing in chemical vapors not meant to enter our bodies. Your nose has millions of receptors that directly link to your brain. This is the reason you can smell too many scents and get a headache or a particular scent can be so tightly bound to a particular memory. Thus, these chemicals can impact our mental functions as well.

The sad part is using chemical air fresheners are completely unnecessary. Man has taken something that God gave us naturally and perverted it into something that harms us. Pure essential oils are perfect for using to freshen our homes. When you use vanilla, lavender or mint, you can be assured that you are breathing in parts of the original plant and that the healing properties of those plants are being utilized by your body.

To make a simple air freshener, take a glass spray bottle (you can use plastic but over time it could start to corrode the inside) and fill it with purified or distilled water. Then add 10 or more drops of essential oil until it smells as you desire. Spray your rooms generously. It is amazingly simple and completely healthy. Don’t compromise your family’s health when you don’t have to.