Freshly baked bread, a field of flowers, or even the smell of crisp water after a shower, different types of smells surround us all the time. But not all smells are nice, and not all nice smells are good for your body. Just like with many things, too much of something can be bad for you and your health.

Smells, or scents are everywhere, almost everything has some sort of smell and these smells help us navigate through life. Bad smells can trigger reactions and warn us of harmful or dangerous things. Good smells can help us relax and make us feel good. Especially strong smells can induce biological reactions such as nausea or dizziness. Different types of people also react differently to a variety of smells. Children, pregnant women, and the elderly are just to name a few who are more sensitive to smells and should take precautions when dealing with or being in an environment of strong smells.

In nature, there are already smells deemed “bad” or don’t smell “good”. These smells help us navigate the world safely by inducing an unwanted reaction, persuading us to avoid things that smell bad. Feces, sewage, garbage, fires, diesel exhaust, and cleaning chemicals are just to name a few. We know not to hang around or ingest these substances because they smell especially pungent and can induce bodily reactions. Animals can use these responses to protect themselves. Skunks are commonly known to produce a terrible smell to ward off predators.

Scents can commonly cause:

• Headaches

• Nasal congestion

• Eye, nose, and throat irritation (if ingested)

• Hoarseness, sore throat

• Cough

• Chest tightness

• Shortness of breath

• Wheezing

• Heart Palpitations

• Nausea, dizziness

• Drowsiness

• Mental Depression

Reactions vary due to many factors such as the substances themselves, the concentration amount, a person’s personal sensitivity towards certain substances, the current state of health, time of exposure, and frequency. Being exposed long-term in small quantities may have the same results when expose less frequently but in higher concentrations. When ingested or applied directly on the body, these substances can also cause irritations on the skin or allergic reactions.

Modern society has taken up the enjoyment of creating new and exotic aromas through lesser natural ways. Candles, soaps, perfume, cleaning products. Artificially made scents have been rapidly adopted into the modern-day usage. Not all products are made equally and just as there is a broad range of different scents, there is a broad range of quality and not every artificially made scent is safe for utilization.

Most modern fresheners use a mixture of fragrances and oils with alcohol to release scents in the air. Fragrances are chemicals mixed together that create specific smells. Oils are substances extracted from plants that release specific smells. The combination of the two can create an ever-expanding variety of scents and smells. Some fragrances and oils can induce allergic reactions through the airways or contact with the skin. Just as you would for any other food and drink products, checking the ingredients list is a great way to know what you are smelling and identify the differences in quality among similar-smelling products. 

There are no currently known negative effects from the constant use of these fresheners besides allergic reactions and bodily reactions when in high concentrations, but there are concerns about secondary pollutants that are created from the use of fresheners. Secondary pollutants are pollutants that are formed from the current mix of chemicals in the air and the chemicals from the fresheners or any scented products. These pollutants could be potentially harmful after long-term exposure and as many fresheners use alcohol as a way to release scents rapidly, increased flammability is a safety concern. 

https://www.poison.org/articles/air-freshener-171#:~:text=Briefly%20inhaling%20a%20small%20amount,mouth%20to%20life%2Dthreatening%20effects.

https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/odors/faqs.html