Do we have any proof that air fresheners are safe?

Factual Questions
1

I know they aren’t regulated, but perhaps they’ve been tested.
If not by the EPA, then maybe consumer reports.

They give me headaches. My inlaws’ house and car reeks of them, but they contend the air is “purified, like mountain air”. I’ve never spent much time in the mountains, so I can’t vouch for their being safe either.

2

Well, by definition they contaminate the air with their odor, not sure how anyone can believe they’d purify anything

3

Are you talking about a machine that filters the air, or an air freshener as in a candle/plug-in/aerosol/gel?

4

If you know the answer to either question, feel free to enlighten us.

5

“Air fresheners” emit a scent which masks unpleasant odors. Some of them also deaden olfactory nerves. A few (mostly for industrial applications) actually spray disinfectant. I wouldn’t describe their operation as “cleaning the air”, and I wouldn’t use any of them myself.

“Air Purifiers” fall into several categories:

  1. Mechanical air filters (“HEPA”) - these force room air through a fine filter, removing dust and pollen mechanically. Some have a downstream charcoal filter which can remove some odors and common air pollutants, including ozone. While these devices are perfectly safe, there efficacy is questionable, as is their usefulness (for stand-alone “room” devices - whole-house filters can work fine).
  2. Electrostatic air filters - These trap particles on an electrically charged grid. They can be very efficient at trapping fine particulates, including cigarette smoke. They can emit ozone, so they often have a charcoal filter. Once again, the performance of stand-alone filters is debatable.
  3. “Positive Ion generators” - These use corona discharge to put ions into the air. Some people believe that ions are good for you. I doubt it. Most free radicals are to be avoided, since they cause (potentially undesirable) chemical reactions. I doubt whether these devices actually generate enough long-lived ions to be measured. They do generate ozone, which is to be avoided (it’s irritating at low concentrations, and toxic at higher concentrations).
  4. Ozone generators - designed for people who want to irritate their lungs. Inhaled ozone has no medical benefit, and as I said above, is a toxin. Ozone will kill bacteria and viruses, but it’s questionable whether that benefit is worth lung damage.
6

Spray air fresheners can give you a sore throat, plug your sinuses and cause nausea on a good day, as can perfume. If you are sick with a respiratory ailment, you can have an unscheduled trip to the emergency room with bronchial spasms. Uncle Sam is worried about second-hand smoke, but hasn’t gotten around to taxing to death room sprays yet.

7

In the Bad Old Days, air fresheners used to be made of paraformaldehyde, a short-polymer form of formaldehyde that gradually vaporizes. They mix in some perfume and the stuff eventually entered the air when the paraformaldehyde around it evaporated.
(unusually reliable reference: Do air fresheners work by numbing out your nose? - The Straight Dope )
Since paraformaldehyde is a suspected carcinogen, they stopped using it a while back. They claim the new stuff they use is safe, but I don’t know that it’s been independently tested.

By the way, long-chain and stabilized paraformaldehyde is an unusually strong and stable polymer, acetal plastic. it goes by various trade names, including Delrin and Celcon.

8

The Master speaks

9

What about those adverts for Febreze etc, which say something along the lines of “Unlike normal air fresheners which just mask odours, our product actually neutralizes them”?

Is that just so much meadow-fresh bullcrap, or what?

Edit - well duh. Guess I should’ve read the link. Seems like false advertising, though - how is numbing your olfactory nerves in any way the same as “neutralizing odours”?

10

Presumably in the same way that painkillers “neutralize pain”–they don’t make it go away, they just block your ability to receive it and/or care.

11

Baking soda seems to have a rep for killing odors. I guess it’s tame enough.
I would trust that, say for dusting a pet-soiled carpet area, long before I’d trust one of those little heater machines that Glade tells you to plug in. Sniff hot wax fumes on purpose? Not I.