Your room smells good, your house smells good, your car smells good, but what is it doing to your lungs?
Captivating aroma. Heavenly scent. Stink. There are thousands of products made to change the smell of a room, or person. Products like scented candles, incense, diffusers, and room sprays, come in a rainbow of smells. There are scented body washes, colognes, hand lotions, and deodorants. You can have your car fresheners, potpourris, or even units that plug into the electrical outlets. There is scented toilet paper, laundry detergent, and scented tissues.
It is not uncommon, or considered unacceptable, for people to complain about the smell of cigarette smoke, but many people have sensitivity to other smells and are offended by them, or even allergic to some of them. Why is it not equally important to be considerate of these people?
Some of these products are actually worse for people to breathe in than second hand smoke is, and yet there seem to be very few people concerned about them. Take "air fresheners" for example, they pump an assortment of unknown chemicals into the air, undoubtedly sending who knows what, straight into your lungs. It might have been tested, and be called "Safe", but obviously something is entering our lungs.
What is really alarming, is that many air fresheners do not actually freshen the air, some work by masking, or covering, another odor, or worse, some work by deadening the nerve receptors in your nose for certain types of smells. That scares me, if I have the choice I do not want cigarette smoke in my lungs, nor do I want any chemicals, and I especially don't want a chemical that is deadening any nerve endings!
When it comes to products used on our skin, it is well known that products with scents often contribute to skin problems. This is why people with eczema have to be careful what they use. Even some things like scented fabric softener can be problematic to a person who is sensitive.
I was traveling through the United States a couple of years back, and rented a car. Even though I am not a person who is overly sensitive to smells I felt overcome by the strong odor. There were no less than five car fresheners in the rental car. I had to put them in the glove compartment. Too much of a good thing, is not necessarily a better thing.
When we burn candles and incense, we put particles into the air, particles, that eventually have to come down, additionally we breathe in many of those chemicals. If you burn a lot of paraffin candles you will certainly notice the thin layer of soot they leave on your windows, try cleaning a window with a piece of white paper towel and you will see a black mark. This is the evidence of soot. This is also in your lungs. When candles are scented it means even more tiny particles are in the air, and in your lungs.
Airplanes and other public transportation have already banned cigarette smoking, but most allow people drenched in perfume to board. People, particularly teens and seniors, often put on too much perfume or cologne. What happens is that in seniors, they have become so used to the smell of their favorite scent that they have to use more and more before they smell it, and as a result tend to over do it. Teenagers, on the other hand, suffer from lack of experience, lured by clever advertising they think more is better, and go wild. Body spray, being the teens weapon of choice.
So for better health, and better air quality, try to be aware of how many scented products you are using. I personally would rather breathe in actual clean air, than air loaded with chemicals labeled as "Clean Scent".
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