Too many smelly candles? Here's how scents impact the air quality in your home

Too many smelly candles? Here's how scents
impact the air quality in your home

January 9 2023, by Svetlana Stevanovic

Credit: Karolina Grabowska/Pexels

There's nothing wrong with wanting your home to smell nice and
fresh—and from candles to diffusers, there's no shortage of home scent
products to help you achieve that.

But having rampant fragrances in our indoor air can dramatically impact
air quality, coming with a host of potential problems.

1/5

Indoor air quality is a going concern

People in high- and middle-income countries spend 85-90% of their
time indoors. An average person inhales up to 20,000 liters of air daily,
and exposure to air pollutants in stagnant air indoors can pose risks to
our health and well-being, causing symptoms such as eye irritation,
respiratory issues and even headaches.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), levels of
indoor air pollutants are typically more than three times higher than
outdoors.

Sources of indoor pollution can be many: cooking, heating, scented
cleaning products, and also the products we use to deodorize our living
or working spaces—whether they're candles, diffusers, room sprays,
gels, beads or other products.

The sole purpose of home scents is to make the air smell nice. This
means we're intentionally releasing a mix of chemicals in an indoor
environment and potentially lowering the indoor air quality.

Meet the VOCs

Air fresheners emit more than 100 different chemicals, including
volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These are airborne chemicals that
include wide classes of organic compounds: terpenes such as limonene
(lemon scent), alpha-pinene (smell of pine trees), and beta-pinene;
solvents such as ethanol, formaldehyde, benzene, toluene and xylene, and
many other compounds.

These VOCs will react with ozone and other indoor oxidants to generate
a range of oxidation products, which are potentially toxic molecules. The
level of exposure and concentration determines the potential toxicity.

2/5

Fragrances and ozone can also generate pollutants such as formaldehyde,
acetaldehyde and free radicals, all classified as toxic or hazardous by
agencies such as the EPA.

The type and amount of pollutants created by your home fragrance will
depend on many factors, such as the type of product (does it burn or is it
a vapor?), its composition (although ingredients aren't always known),
and the indoor air itself.

All air freshener types produce high emissions of volatile organic
compounds in some settings. How scents are delivered into the space is
reported to be less important for emissions than the composition of the
scent in question.

Legally, the chemicals used in air fresheners do not have to be disclosed.
Studies have found vast variation in what gets disclosed on the label.

Apart from fragrance compounds, a home scent can also emit solvents
such as ethanol and iso-propanol, or dipropylene glycol and tens of
others. Odorless solvents are of specific concern as it is difficult for a
consumer to predict the impact and to be aware of higher concentrations
present in the air.

Notably, manufacturers of scents can use the words "fragrance",
"perfume" and "essential oil" in the list of ingredients without specifying
which chemicals are used to form the fragrance.

Typically, it can be tens or hundreds of different chemicals that were not
disclosed.

'Green' isn't always better either

Even when the ingredients are listed on the label, it doesn't mean the

3/5

product is entirely off the hook.

For example, consumers can be easily misled by labels such as "green",
"organic" or "natural" on their products, also known as greenwashing.

There is generally a lack of awareness that the scents marketed as green
or organic release similar amounts of potentially hazardous materials
into the air as other products, as there's no regulation on what can be
labeled "green".

For example, essential oils are natural aromatic compounds but, once
released into the air, can form nanoparticles and pollutants such as
formaldehyde, a known carcinogen.

Keeping it fresh

Our ubiquitous exposure to fragranced products, even at low levels, has
been associated with various adverse health effects. In a study across the
United States, Australia, Sweden and the United Kingdom, 32.2% of
people were reported to have a sensitivity to fragrance. In those who are
sensitive, fragrances are a risk factor for asthma and headaches.

All this doesn't mean you must throw your scented candles in the bin.
But using them in moderation is highly advisable if you care about the
overall quality of your indoor air.

Although there is no safe threshold for exposure to particulate matter
(such as soot) and VOCs, burning soy, beeswax or other non-paraffin
candles in a moderate way—along with proper ventilation and/or indoor
air filtration—should be considered generally safe.

That said, removing air fresheners, fragrances and scented candles will
likely improve your indoor air quality overall. It will also make your

4/5

living space safer for your family, pets and friends.

                                   Some other measures you may consider to make your indoor
                                   environment cleaner and healthier are frequently ventilating spaces,
                                   using vacuum cleaners with HEPA filters, using air purifiers,
                                   surrounding yourself with greenery, and cleaning regularly.

                                   This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative
                                   Commons license. Read the original article.

                                   Provided by The Conversation

                                   Citation: Too many smelly candles? Here's how scents impact the air quality in your home (2023,
                                   January 9) retrieved 29 May 2023 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-01-smelly-candles-
                                   scents-impact-air.html

                                   This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private
                                   study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is
                                   provided for information purposes only.

                                   5/5

Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)