The Bollocks Page: Articles

3.  Joan Byrne (2000) “What’s in your Perfume” Focus June 2000 p58-61

A supreme illustration of why Trade Magazines should employ scientific editors, in my opinion Joan Byrne utterly annihilates her case for the potentially harmful effects of fragrance chemicals in perfumes, by peppering the article with dubious and incorrect facts. I do have some sympathy with her central point, that there are within the population, a number of very unfortunate individuals who exhibit severe fragrance allergy. I have corresponded with individuals who show rare life-threatening anaphylactic shock reactions to fragrances, and have to have bottles & syringes permanently to hand in the event of severe chemical insult. Joan herself describes her own adverse reactions to fragrances in the article. 

The article describes how, amongst the 5000 toxic (?) fragrance chemicals used in perfumes, 95% (?) of which are derived from petroleum. These apparently include “known carcinogens” that are designated “hazardous waste”, which depress the Central nervous system and cause breathing and allergy problems. In fact perfume chemicals undergo a battery of toxicity tests under the Research Institute for Fragrance Manufacturers (RIFM) comprehensive testing programme. I believe that no perfume manufacturer would knowingly include dangerous carcinogens in their perfume products, and I challenge Joan Byrne to name one! Those that are incorrectly cited are discussed below.

It looks as if much of the article's sensationalism derives from muddled thinking, because it is states that a 1991 report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in America revealed acetone, ethyl acetate and ethanol as being the most common chemicals used in fragrance products! Clearly something is very wrong here! Ethanol is a fragrance carrier, not a fragrance ingredient.  Acetone is not a fragrance ingredient at all, and ethyl acetate has a marginal usage only. All three chemicals are however used as solvents to prepare raw aromatic materials from vegetable sources, although they do not persist to any degree in the final product, and perhaps this is where this gross error was made.

The same report reveals benzyl acetate, limonene and methylene chloride as carcinogens. Nine years ago when this EPA report came out (why use an out of date report to write a modern article?) methylene chloride was already being phased out by the industry as a solvent because chlorinated solvents do cause health problems. Benzyl acetate is not currently restricted in fragrances because there is no toxicity/carcinogenicity case to answer (perhaps the author meant benzene?). Limonene has now been proven anti-tumoral, the early erroneous implications of tumour promotion in mice treated with cancer initiating chemicals now being ascribed to oxidation products of limonene.

The most inconceivable fact reported in the article was that toluene was present in every fragrance sampled by the EPA. I’m afraid any fragrance industry workers will already be falling about laughing by now; toluene is not present in fragrances; it might once have had a minor use as a solvent in the preparation of raw materials (I am only aware of one example of its employment, as a solvent to extract labdanum gum).

More inaccuracy can be found on page 60 where a statement is made that safety testing of perfumes does not take into account its neurological effects. In fact RIFM toxicologists do have this consideration as part of their remit, and for example, they decided that 1,1,4,4-Tetramethyl -6-ethyl-7-acetyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalene should not be used as a fragrance ingredient, based on findings of neurotoxic effects in animals with this substance (ref: D.L.J. Opdyke (1979), Fd. Cosmet. Toxicol. 17, 357-360; P.S. Spencer, A.B. Sterman et al. (1979), Neurotoxicology 1(1), 221-37).   

If Joan Byrne wants to be taken more seriously, and I do believe she has a valid case to argue, presenting the argument more accurately will assist her cause.

 

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