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Air Fresheners' Potentially Toxic Chemicals Require More EPA Action
Pressure from housing and environmental organizations led the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take "baby steps" to investigate potentially toxic chemicals in popular air fresheners, but EPA denied requests to comprehensively investigate the chemicals and inform the public.
"EPA has taken an important baby step in understanding the issue," said Jessica Frohman, co-chair of Sierra Club's National Toxics Committee. "Now EPA needs to fully investigate these products, which offer no public health benefits and may cause respiratory problems."
Far too little is known about which chemicals make up air fresheners, and there is virtually no government oversight monitoring the health risks those chemicals may pose. Air fresheners do not clean the air; they just add toxic chemicals to the air we breathe. Instead of thorough cleaning or effective ventilation, the air fresheners are too often used as a mask for smells from sewage, mold, rodents and cockroaches, all health risks in and of themselves.
The Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Alliance for Healthy Homes and the National Center for Healthy Housing have urged the EPA to take action. On December 18, EPA sent letters to seven major manufacturers of air fresheners asking for a voluntary list of chemicals in their products, the range of concentrations for each chemical, the chemical's function, and total annual amount used.
The seven manufacturers are: Proctor and Gamble; Redkitt Benckiser; SC Johnson; Shell Oil; Blythe; Lancaster Colony; and Dial.
Despite sending the letters, EPA denied the coalition's specific requests, which included requiring companies to:
*provide EPA with consumers' reports of health problems associated with air fresheners
*submit copies of existing health and safety studies on the products
*test the products for their potential impacts on people's respiratory systems
*label products containing phthalates, a particularly dangerous class of chemicals
While disappointed with EPA's refusal to take the requested proactive steps to investigate the chemicals and inform the public, the coalition continues to track the issue and will take further action if the companies fail to provide EPA with the information requested.
"This is a good first step to understand how a common product could be potentially hazardous to millions of Americans," said Dr. Megan Sandel of Boston Medical Center / Boston University, a pediatrician who has raised concerns about air fresheners.
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