We're moving into a new house, and my parents want me to design my bedroom from scratch. Are there any elements to consider from a non-toxic point of view? Bed sheets? Floor type? Lighting? I'd be happy to show you pics of the room if that helps.
Worth the buy or not?
Liz.kreutz@nbcuni.com
Instagram: lizkreutznews
Nbcnewsmediarelations@nbcuni.com
There has been a recent uptick in main stream coverage of the dangers of fragrance in our environment. On the NBC Today show (Oct 9, 3d hour) they featured Scott Cole who is fighting the battle to eliminate fragrance from public spaces. The segment didn’t really convey the severity of the situation, it came across more as a preference for FF rather than an accessibility issue or ADA violation. The good news is that obviously there is room to educate. I think it would be extraordinarily helpful if everyone took a few minutes to message the journalist above who covered the story as well as the Today show. People who don’t know don’t understand even though they think they might. We need to share our stories in a compelling fashion to help them understand the impact and limitations you live with on a daily basis. Please take a few minutes of your time ASAP and share your suffering with them. Let’s ask them to do another story with more of a human interest take. The more voices they hear the more likely they will help.
Scented really is the new cigarette. Same chemicals, same harm. Same corporate defensiveness from giant companies profiting from their chemicals, at the cost of human health.
Secondhand scent is as toxic as secondhand smoke. As for me, I'm grateful to this firm for standing up for clean air rights.
Speaking as a person with disabilities, anyone (like the companies in the article) who says the ADA has been "weaponized" doesn't understand disability at all and has no empathy for the strength a person with disabilities needs just to get through the day. To me, saying the ADA is nothing more than a "weapon against companies" is extremely ableist.
Excerpts from the article:
The conflict highlights an emerging debate about synthetic scents: Many hotels use them, but some sensitive guests consider those aromas as welcome as secondhand smoke.
In general, the lawsuits allege that artificial fragrances used in many hotel public rooms violate the federal Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, because those fragrances make it dangerous or impossible for some people to share the space.
In court filings, Cole’s firm asserts that 26.8% of adults suffer from asthma or asthma-like conditions and 27.5% suffer from chemical sensitivity. He contends that when hotels circulate synthetic fragrances through scent dispersion machines, they may be spreading toxic chemicals, potentially causing respiratory problems, headaches, skin irritation and gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and cognitive problems among vulnerable guests.
Many of the companies that supply hotel fragrances belong to the Switzerland-based International Fragrance Assn. (IFRA), which sets voluntary guidelines for ingredients. But the U.S. government frequently doesn’t require disclosure of fragrance ingredients because blends are often trade secrets.
“It’s outside of the [Food and Drug Administration’s] domain and so the regulatory framework becomes much less stringent,” said Alexander M. Spokoyny, professor and chair of UCLA’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Yet among skeptics, questions and doubts remain on the safety of chemical entities, fragrances included.
“Even if something might be natural, if you aerosolize it and spread it across buildings, it’s not necessarily great,” UCLA’s Spokoyny said. “I do think it requires more thorough public scrutiny. ... You just don’t know what you don’t know.”
And this nasty bit:
Representatives for Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, Intercontinental Hotels Group and Loews hotel chains, all targeted in the first volley of lawsuits, did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did the American Hotel & Lodging Assn., the industry’s leading trade group.
But the association’s website asserts that the Americans With Disabilities Act “has been used as a weapon by scheming lawyers seeking to extort easy settlements ... after alleging ambiguous violations of the law.”
Where do I even start making my home less toxic without spending a fortune?
I’m starting to realize there are a lot of things in my apartment that probably aren’t the best. Cleaning products, soaps, plastic stuff, cookware, fragrances, laundry stuff and just random things around the house.
I honestly don’t know where to start and I really don’t want to throw everything away and spend a shit ton of money replacing my whole apartment at once.
If you were starting from basically zero, what would you change first?
I’m looking for the stuff that actually makes the biggest difference, not just replacing things because something says non toxic on the label.
Would you just replace things as they run out? Are there certain things you would get rid of right away?
What are like the first 5 or 10 things you would focus on?
I live in an apartment so I’m looking for realistic changes that aren’t going to cost me hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Basically where do I even start?
I've slowly been removing toxic stuff out of my life however I still need to do some switches
Toothpaste
Toothbrush (I have a bamboo one, but the bristles are still plastic which is pointless)
Bedding (on the affordable side if possible)
Deodorant
Thanks!
Sometime earlier this year, I switched from “natural fragrance only” to totally fragrance free and I want to share my reasons why. When we are picky about air quality and health, it’s often clear that synthetic fragrance is a bad idea, but with natural fragrance it’s often less clear what to do. And this isn’t meant as a “you should feel the same way as me” kind of post - I’m just talking old loud about why I decided this for my house. Comments are welcome whether you agree or disagree!
I only get asthma from synthetic fragrance and I can tell that the amount of lying on labels has increased greatly.
Not only are they often lying about what’s natural; no one is punishing them for it. Labeling laws are currently set up to allow them to lie freely without repercussions. Even with the strictest possible wording of “no synthetic ingredients in any of our products,” they are still lying way more often than they’re telling the truth. When they aren’t lying then their suppliers are often lying to them. I know because I personally do not react to truly natural fragrance but I do react to the lies. When I get my classic synthetic fragrance reaction, I can tell it’s not 100% natural. And I notice when a so-called “natural fragrance” has eternal longevity and room-crossing sillage, even after going through a hot dryer. That’s not possible with 100% natural ingredients. My body could handle a 5% failure rate on this topic 15 years ago, but in 2026 it’s more like a 75% failure rate and that just felt like too much for my body.
When I show an interest in “natural fragrance,” then loved ones buy GREENWASHED fragrance. This increases the amount of synthetic fragrance in my life. You might think this is this the same as reason 1, but it is a totally different thing. Reason 1 is about me being fooled in spite of 20+ years of experience avoiding greenwashing, because companies are lying. Reason 2 is about loved ones being fooled because of “technically that’s not a lie” wording, and a picture of a plant. My loved ones are smart and caring people, but they fell into obvious greenwashing traps in 100% of their fragrance purchases. They only bought things that I would have never bought because when I look at the website I see “obviously greenwashed, obviously synthetic.” My body can’t handle all that new synthetic fragrance that wouldn’t have been in my life otherwise - regardless of how altruistic their goal was when they bought it. Then my mother in law started to show signs of losing her memory. I can’t use my body as a testing device to help loved ones figure out which of their purchases are greenwashed (they all are) - or a testing device to see if someone with early stage dementia is forgetting complex details again (she is). It’s the same as forcing myself to breathe synthetic fragrance constantly. It’s just too much. And “please stop buying that type of product” sounds diplomatically better if I am also not buying it either.
In chemical sensitivity and asthma and fragrance allergy support groups, many people out there report reacting to natural fragrance. I can’t know which product they reacted to; I can’t tell if their situation overlaps at all with reason 1 or reason 2 above. But, I don’t really need to know that because reason 3 is about ethics and altruism and acknowledging that we all share the same air in public spaces. What’s more important to me - being part of the clean air movement and supporting everyone who has lost their ability to breathe in public spaces? (Not just people whose sensitivity level is the same as mine - but truly everyone?) Or …smelling like my favorite natural perfume (one of the rare few that wasn’t greenwashed or lying)? I decided that supporting people is more important. Our choices affect each other. Just as I hope that others would drop a product to help me breathe and exist in public, I am willing to do the same for others.
Cole & Van Note (the law firm that’s suing businesses in the USA for using fragrance - the ADA accessibility fragrance class action lawsuits) is including natural fragrance in their lawsuits. I am a curious person, so that was enough for me to google and read about why. When I read about it, I learned not just that my instinct was right about all the lying; I also learned that natural fragrance might not be truly safe. I learned sometimes truly natural fragrance reacts with the air to make formaldehyde which is a carcinogen. And it is true there isn’t perfect overlap between “things that don’t give me asthma” and “things that are safe” - like radon for example, which is another natural substance that is a carcinogen and also doesn’t give me asthma but it isn’t safe in high levels. My body is in max recovery mode right now and I don’t think I need formaldehyde in my house; I don’t think other people should be subjected to it either if I’m the one wearing it.