Scented cleaning products change indoor air: 'Like standing along a busy road'
A new study reveals that scented cleaning products release enormous quantities of particles. But a Norwegian researcher warns against assuming that all types of particles are equally dangerous.
“Using scented products doesn't make things any cleaner,” says a Norwegian doctor and researcher.(Stock photo: Hryshchyshen Serhii / Shutterstock / NTB)
Common cleaning products often smell of citrus, flowers, or pine.
The fresh scents that spread through the room while we clean are often associated with cleanliness.
But those pleasant smells can be misleading. They can contain a large number of particles, at levels comparable to or even higher than those we are exposed to when standing alongside a busy road, says one of the researchers behind a new study.
“Clean air should not smell like highly concentrated citrus fruit. It should not really smell of anything,” Brandon Boor says in a press release from the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Boor and other researchers at Purdue University have taken a closer look at what happens to indoor air when we clean with pleasantly scented products.
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The findings suggest that we would be wise to avoid them.
Chemist Alexander Håland at NILU believes that many of the substances permitted today will be banned in the future.(Photo: NILU)
Fragrances are popular in cleaning products
Many of the cleaning products we use contain added fragrances, including monoterpenes.
These naturally occurring chemicals are responsible for many of the distinctive scents produced by plants. Common examples include limonene, which is found in citrus fruit, and alpha-pinene, which gives pine needles their scent.
“When you're walking through a forest, breathing deeply and enjoying that fresh woodland smell, much of what you're detecting is alpha-pinene,” explains Alexander Håland.
He is a chemist at the research institute NILU, where he studies substances that readily exist in gaseous form, such as monoterpenes.
These fragrance compounds are popular additives in cleaning products because they produce pleasant smells.
“If you mop your floor with floor cleaner, there's a good chance it contains a substantial amount of limonene,” Håland explains.
However, these fragrance compounds can significantly alter indoor air.
Rubbing a lemon leaf between your fingers releases the monoterpene limonene.(Stock photo: Shutterstock / NTB)
Comparable to gas stoves and diesel engines
Researchers at Purdue University set out to understand what happens to indoor air when these fragrance compounds are released. Several members of the research team had previously investigated emissions from scented wax melts.
This time, they carried out ordinary cleaning activities using scented cleaning products in a small test house.
Activities such as mopping floors, spraying countertops, and wiping surfaces with cloths generated billions to trillions of airborne particles.
The indoor air changed substantially. Researchers found that particle numbers were comparable to, and in some cases higher than, those associated with gas stoves and diesel engines.
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In a press release, they describe the finding as follows: When we clean with these products, we are exposed to as much air pollution as we would experience standing beside a busy road – or more.
Chemist Håland is unsure how valid that comparison is.
“If you're looking solely at the number of particles, the comparison is probably reasonable. But it's also a somewhat risky comparison, because the particles being produced aren't necessarily the same,” he says.
The chemist points out that when we stand beside busy roads, we also breathe in particles from the road surfaces and rubber tyres, as well as other substances known to cause serious health problems.
However, less is known about the fragrance compounds.
“Could become a problem”
According to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, fragrance compounds are considered harmless in themselves, although inhaling them may trigger respiratory symptoms in some individuals.
Håland explains that the concentrations in these products are low enough that they generally do not pose a major problem.
“What could become a problem is if you use them excessively,” says Håland.
How problematic the particles are also depends on their size and how much we are exposed to them over the course of a lifetime.
Can penetrate deep into the lungs
The study from Purdue University showed that most of the particles were small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs.
"Particle size is very important," Håland says, referring to the potential effects particles can have on our health when we inhale them.
We can cough up particles that are large enough. Smaller particles, however, may travel much farther into the lungs, potentially reaching the alveoli – the tiny air sacs where oxygen passes into the bloodstream.
So what happens if particles from fragrance compounds reach these deeper regions of our lungs?
Doctor Øistein Svanes uses pleasantly scented cleaning sprays himself, but encourages people to avoid them if possible.(Photo: Private)
We do not know enough
"We simply don't know, and that wasn't something the researchers examined in this study," says Øistein Svanes.
Svanes is a doctor and specialist in lung diseases. He has researched how cleaning products affect the lungs and found that people who work in cleaning have a higher risk of asthma and respiratory problems. However, his study did not focus exclusively on scented cleaning products.
The doctor says that we do not know enough about the health effects of inhaling particles from scented cleaning products, but has a clear message:
"Inhaling these tiny particles is simply unnecessary. You just don't need to expose yourself to them."
"Water and a microfibre cloth are enough"
Svanes also points out that there is little benefit to using cleaning products that smell nice.
“Using scented products doesn't make things any cleaner. It's simply about making things smell clean, and making other people think they smell clean,” says Svanes.
"Water and a microfibre cloth are enough in many cases," he adds.
