--- title: New Study Indicates That Air Fresheners Can Trigger Respiratory Problems description: They may smell sweet, but popular air fresheners can cause serious lung problems. 7140023 canonical: https://time.com/archive/7140023/why-air-fresheners-can-trigger-respiratory-problems/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2011-11-08T10:00:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T10:43:41.558Z article:section: Health og:title: New Study Indicates That Air Fresheners Can Trigger Respiratory Problems og:description: They may smell sweet, but popular air fresheners can cause serious lung problems. 7140023 og:url: https://time.com/archive/7140023/why-air-fresheners-can-trigger-respiratory-problems/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62edcfd16958e363/698a940e18689257cb6ce509/hl_airfreshener_1107.jpg?branch=production&width=307&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 307 og:image:height: 173 og:image:alt: hl_airfreshener_1107 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New Study Indicates That Air Fresheners Can Trigger Respiratory Problems twitter:description: They may smell sweet, but popular air fresheners can cause serious lung problems. 7140023 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62edcfd16958e363/698a940e18689257cb6ce509/hl_airfreshener_1107.jpg?branch=production&width=307&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) # Why Air Fresheners Can Trigger Respiratory Problems > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Nov 8, 2011 10:00 AM UTC  Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Nov 8, 2011 10:00 AM UTC They may smell sweet, but popular air fresheners can cause serious lung problems.more That’s the message from a [new study](http://www.newswise.com/articles/unplug-indoor-pollutants-for-a-breath-of-fresh-air-allergists-say-home-fragrance-products-may-cause-respiratory-problems) presented over the weekend at the annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). Home fragrance products often contain [volatile organic compounds](http://www.epa.gov/iaq/voc.html) (VOCs) that include such nasty chemicals as formalehyde, petroleum distillates, limonene, esters and alcohols. (Download a copy of the presentation [here](http://healthland.time.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2011/11/0083-000282%5Fhandout%5Fpres.pdf)) Exposures to such VOCs — even at levels below currently accepted safety recommendations — [can increase the risk of asthma](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=volatile-organic-compounds) in kids. That’s because VOCs can trigger eye and respiratory tract irritation, headaches and dizziness, as Dr. Stanley Fineman, ACAAI president-elect, pointed out: --- > “” --- **MORE:** [5 Ways Americans’ Allergies Are Getting Worse](http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/27/5-ways-americans-allergies-are-getting-worse/) And if you hope that “all-natural” fragrance products can give you a nice scent without the chemicals, Fineman has bad news for you — even products marketed as organic tend to have hazardous chemicals. That shouldn’t be surprising since fragrance products don’t eliminate bad smells; they just cover them up, and that usually requires something strong. Fineman suggests that you’d be better off simply opening up your window and letting fresh air in — though that advice might not work well [where I live](http://www.grist.org/article/2010-09-30-brooklyns-gowanus-canal-may-be-a-toxic-mess-but-a-lot-of-people-). **MORE**: [Environmental Toxins Cost Billions in Childhood Disease](http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/04/environmental-toxins-cost-billions-in-childhood-disease/) The study also gives some much-needed attention to the problem of indoor air pollution. While air freshener-related asthma is certainly a health hindrance in the developed world — at least among those who like to live in artificially sweet-smelling homes — indoor air pollution is a major health catastrophe for much of the developing world, one that [leads to the premature deaths](http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs292/en/) of nearly 2 million people a year according to the World Health Organization. The majority of those affected are very poor women and children who [might spent hours](http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTHEALTHNUTRITIONANDPOPULATION/EXTPHAAG/0,,contentMDK:20758028~menuPK:1445786~pagePK:64229817~piPK:64229743~theSitePK:672263,00.html) cooking food over a wood-burning fire in a hut with little ventilation. One solution would be to [supply cleaner cookstoves](http://cleancookstoves.org/) that might burn biogas with far less smoke. That’s one health intervention that would save lives at an incredibly low cost— almost certainly less than the $8.3 billion in revenue the global air fragrance industry is expected to earn by 2015. **MORE**: [Could Microwaves Be Associated With Children’s Asthma?](http://healthland.time.com/2011/08/02/microwaves-and-asthma-exposure-to-magnetic-fields-during-pregnancy-ups-asthma-risk-among-newborns/) _Bryan Walsh is a senior writer at_ TIME_. Find him on Twitter at_ [_@bryanrwalsh_](http://twitter.com/#%21/bryanrwalsh)_. You can also continue the discussion on_ TIME’s[_Facebook page_](http://www.facebook.com/time) _and on Twitter at_ [_@TIME_](http://twitter.com/#%21/TIME) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7140023/why-air-fresheners-can-trigger-respiratory-problems/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7140023/why-air-fresheners-can-trigger-respiratory-problems/"},"headline":"Why Air Fresheners Can Trigger Respiratory Problems","datePublished":"2011-11-08T10:00:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T10:43:41.558Z","description":"They may smell sweet, but popular air fresheners can cause serious lung problems. 7140023","url":"https://time.com/archive/7140023/why-air-fresheners-can-trigger-respiratory-problems/","keywords":["Asthma"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62edcfd16958e363/698a940e18689257cb6ce509/hl_airfreshener_1107.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62edcfd16958e363/698a940e18689257cb6ce509/hl_airfreshener_1107.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"hl_airfreshener_1107","caption":"","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7140023/why-air-fresheners-can-trigger-respiratory-problems/","name":"Why Air Fresheners Can Trigger Respiratory Problems"}}]}] ```