45. Understanding Fragrance Allergens and Reading Labels (Cracking the Fragrance Code: Part 2)

After exploring the realm of personal fragrances in the previous episode, this week I'm explaining what fragrance allergens are.

With new labeling laws, I've been getting quite a few questions about the list of fragrance allergens that are popping up on American product labels.  So we're breaking down what fragrance allergens really are, why they matter, and whether you should be concerned.

The big picture: America is finally catching up to laws that have been in place in the EU for...almost 25 years.

My science brain is nerding out over a recent study that show how two constituents that are molecularly identical can have different effects on the human body. The difference?  The source of the constituent. Naturally occurring limonene (found in citrus essential oils) isn't as repellent to mosquitos as synthetic limonene. 

In this episode, you'll learn  how to read fragrance allergen labels so that you can take care of your bio-individual body!

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Transcript

Speaker 0: 0:02

Are you a woman who loves to smell good and loves her products to smell good too, but you're also trying to live a more toxin free life? Maybe you've heard that fragrance is bad for you and can even contribute to infertility, thyroid disorders and hormone issues, but you weren't quite sure why or how to find clean fragrance. Or maybe you have taken the time to research clean, safe products for your family, only to find out later it wasn't as clean as you thought it was. If that's you, you're not going to want to miss this episode. In fact, you're not going to want to miss this entire series.

Speaker 0: 0:34

Today's part two of our fragrance series. Last week's episode, episode 44, was part one, and we dove into the world of personal fragrance, perfumes and colognes. I shared the difference between a fragrance made with safe synthetic ingredients versus one made from 100% botanical, plant-based ingredients like essential oils, the pros and cons of each and how to decide which one is the best choice for you In part two of the series. Today, I'm going to share with you what you need to know about fragrance allergens. There's been a lot of changes recently in labeling laws and you may have already noticed a fragrance allergy disclosure popping up on ingredient labels where they didn't used to be. I'm going to explain what fragrance allergens actually are, whether or not you should even be concerned about it and why have they just now started popping up on product labels? And just so you know, you also don't want to miss part three, the final episode in the series next week. Brands like Axe and Dove and Bath, body Works and hundreds of other brands selling fragrance products in California have finally been forced by new state law to disclose what exactly are in their fragrance ingredients, and you're not going to believe what I found. They've been using ingredients that not even me knew about.

Speaker 0: 1:46

You're listening to the Detox Dilemma podcast, where clean living meets real life. We help you toss the toxins out of your life and embrace real, lasting health. My name is Wendy and I'm an environmental toxins attorney turned clean living coach, and since 2015, I've helped over 700 families clean up the toxins. My mission is simple to show you how to create a toxin-free-ish home that you actually love that also fits into your real, crazy, busy life. If you're ready to dive in and learn the basics of what you need to know about reading fragrance labels, stick around and let's dive in.

Speaker 0: 2:18

So what is a fragrance allergen. A fragrance allergen is a basically an ingredient, whether it's an isolated ingredient that's being used, that's a synthetic ingredient, or it's a chemical constituent that is also found in a essential oil or an extract of a botanical, and if that ingredient has been shown in any way, shape or form through clinical studies or from reporting of people that it creates an allergic reaction. So skin dermatitis, eczema, itchy scalp those types of allergic reactions in people. There was this 10 year long regulatory process in the European Union, where the rules and requirements around safety of products and cosmetics are a lot tighter and a lot more precautionary. They really want to make sure they're keeping their population safe, and companies that are operating over there actually have to prove their ingredients are safe before they can take them to the market. The opposite is true in the United States. So back in 2009, the EU came out with a new regulation that said we have 26 allergenic substances and we're going to put them on this list, and anybody who's selling a cosmetic in the European Union that has these ingredients whether they're synthetic or whether or not they're a portion of a natural essential oil If you have them in levels that are present under this minimum level, you have to disclose it to the person that you're selling it to. So you cannot sell these products in the European Union unless there is a allergen disclosure.

Speaker 0: 3:50

Now, of those 26 ingredients, they can all be created synthetically and a lot of the science and the studies that I have seen that supports the use of them as a fragrance allergy is from the synthetic ingredient. I've seen some really cool research actually recently. So limonene is one of the ingredients that is on the fragrance list, but it's also a constituent of citrus essential oils. So these scientists wanted to figure out, if you take a synthetic and you compare it to an orange extracted essential oil, cold pressed essential oil, are they different, even though they are molecularly identical? Does the source of it matter? And what they found was actually, yes, it did matter. The synthetic version was showed to be much more toxic. So these rules and these laws don't differ in sheet between the two, and that's why you're going to start seeing these ingredients and these allergen disclosures show up on the labels of products that are really really clean, but they're using essential oils to scent their products.

Speaker 0: 4:56

So the EU has been doing this for a really, really long time. I mean 1999, that's what almost 24 years ago, like that's how far ahead the European Union is from the United States. But fast forward that 24 years and two years ago the state of California passed their own version of this law. The state of California has said to everybody selling products in California you cannot bring your products into our state and sell them to Californians unless you disclose any fragrance allergens that are on the list. They actually want to step further and are requiring any toxins, whether it's reproductive toxins, carcinogens, cancer causing. We're going to talk about that on the next episode next week, so stay tuned. Today is all about allergens, but they said hey, you want to sell your products in the US and state you have to list the allergens on the label. Now, this might not be something that impacts you.

Speaker 0: 5:48

The studies that have been done show that in the European Union, at least they think between one and 9% of their population total has these kind of allergies to these fragrance ingredients, some of them more than others. Like tree moss is on the list, and they think that it could be up to 36% of people who have an allergy to tree moss. So if you have a tree moss allergy, you're not going to want to purchase a perfume or a product that is scented with tree moss. Some of them are much more rare Of the list of 26, some of them are less documented and some of them are documented a lot that people have a problem with it. So if you weren't between the one and 9% on average of people who have an allergy or a sensitivity to fragrance ingredients, then none of this might matter to you at all.

Speaker 0: 6:34

But if you are somebody who does suffer and have really sensitive skin my daughter when she was born she had eczema from head to toe. It was awful, and actually going through that with my baby daughter was the thing that really kickstarted me all those 12 years ago. We were living in Europe at the time and we had an Italian pediatrician tell me hey, you need to get rid of anything that has a synthetic fragrance in it. And so I did and we started using Italian-made products that were fragrance-free and her eczema completely disappeared. And then, six weeks later, I realized I hadn't had a migraine in six weeks and I had suffered migraines my entire life. So we are really sensitive to. I don't know she is for her eczema, but I also was getting migraines from it.

Speaker 0: 7:19

We're not sure what exactly which individual constituent. But I can tell you that essential oils don't bother me at all. I use all of them all the time, and so that kind of begs the question this is something the scientific community grapples with is, when these ingredients are used it isolated? As an isolated ingredient? Does it matter if, when it comes from an essential oil, that there's 150 to 400 other constituents in that essential oil? Does it buffer? The response Is it less allergenic? And we don't really know the answer to that. All I know is when I use synthetic fragrance I get a migraine. So when I use essential oils I don't.

Speaker 0: 7:56

These things are really bio-individual and you have to figure out how your body responds to it. So if you've lived in the state of California for the last year, you've probably noticed this. So you're going to start seeing and you probably already have the labels that say fragrance allergens, and then they list a list of what looks like synthetic chemical names. But again, yes, they can be synthetic. But here's how you know the difference If an essential oil is listed as an ingredient in the product that you're looking at, it has the Latin essential oil name for it. Then in the fragrance disclosure section they're going to have to list out the constituents from that essential oil. But if those constituents are only from that essential oil, then, unless you have an allergy to those oils, you're fine. There shouldn't be any other added synthetic ingredients to that product. That's how you know it comes from an essential oil. If there are no essential oils listed in the ingredient label of that product, but there are fragrance allergen disclosure ingredients, that's how you know that they are synthetically added allergens. Now, what if you don't live in California? Well, this is all coming to a town near you very soon. Well, last year, at the end of 2022, congress passed the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act and in that act, they adopted the requirement that allergen disclosions of those we think it's going to be those 26 allergens, although they didn't specifically say that, but that's kind of the accepted list worldwide. So all companies are going to have to do this, no matter what state that they're in. So by the end of 2024, you're going to start saying this everywhere.

Speaker 0: 9:34

I'm going to give you an example that you probably that you can already see. So I use Thieves, household Cleaner, which is a household cleaner concentrate, so I can make my own. I just put a little bit in a glass. I fill it up and it's full of natural plant-based surfactants. But it also has a bunch of essential oils in it Essential oils that are really good at cleaning my house, so rosemary and eucalyptus and cinnamon and lemon things that are really well known for having really good cleaning power.

Speaker 0: 10:01

I have two bottles of Thieves Household Cleaner. One of them is more recent and it says fragrance allergen disclosure, and on there there is now a list of the individual constituents that come from those essential oils. But those essential oils are listed right there on the label. So that's what it's going to look like You're going to have your ingredients and then underneath of it, you're going to have your allergen disclosure. But there's one more kicker. The European Union, in July of this year, announced that they are now going to add 56 new fragrance allergens that are going to require labeling. Now they decided to do this in response to their scientific committee on consumer safety, who put out an opinion that said they believed these 56 other ingredients are also possible fragrance allergens. So the total is now 80, and companies who are selling products in the European Union are going to have three years to comply with this requirement. And I guess the question is will the United States adopt those full 80, or are they going to wait 25 more years, like they did for the first 26? I've got a good bet that I know the answer to that one. I hope this helped you understand the new allergen labeling requirement.

Speaker 0: 11:12

I tell you what I love hanging out with the people who are in this community, who are loyal listeners, over on Instagram.

Speaker 0: 11:20

And if you have some questions about a label of a product that you're buying, if you just went to Target and you purchased something and you're looking at the label and you're not quite sure you know, is this, you know what she's talking about? Is this good, is this bad? Go ahead and take a picture of it, screenshot it and then put it up in your story and tag me in it and I'll go ahead and take a look and I'll read it for you and I'll let you know what I think about it, probably even share my opinion about some of the other ingredients, but I love doing this kind of stuff. So if you're not already following me, hop on over to Instagram. I'm at wendy Catherine w-e-n-d-y-k-a-t-h-r-y-n. Underscore and just tag me and I'll take a look for you. Thank you for being here and don't forget, next week I'll be spilling the tea on all the ingredients we found out are in all of those Bath and Body Works products. You're not going to want to miss it. See you next week.