# Fabric Softners Toxic - Especially For People With Bad Livers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 13, 2011, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fabric-softners-toxic-especially-for-people-with-bad-livers/596208 "2011-09-13T22:08:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fabric-softners-toxic-especially-for-people-with-bad-livers/596208/1 "2011-09-13T22:08:02Z")
According to this [site](http://www.liversupport.com/wordpress/2011/08/fabric-softeners-and-your-liver/), fabric softners are toxic for people who might have a damaged liver. As my SO has had some severe liver problems (resulting in a TIPS procedure), I was wondering if there is any other evidence that the use of fabric softners is bad for your health. A part of me thinks there might be something to this - chemicals being released into the body over months/years in small doses. Another part of me thinks this might have made headlines if there was any real truth to the fact. So - any legit studies indicating the safe/unsafe aspects of using fabric softners for the general public, or those who might have some other illness like liver disease or whatever? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fabric-softners-toxic-especially-for-people-with-bad-livers/596208/2 "2011-09-13T22:44:43Z")
I just want you to know that there are fabric softeners that _don’t_ have any of those toxic chemicals in them. Most commercial laundry detergent is also totally loaded with chemicals. These companies market their products with all kinds of cutesy advertising featuring little kids, puppies, green meadows, and ridiculous names like “April Fresh” that condition people to associate these fake, artificial, toxic chemical scents with nature and freshness. It’s total bullshit. I use [Ecos](http://www.ecos.com/ecosliquid.html) detergent, made by Earth Friendly Products, which is 100% plant-based and has no artificial fragrances and no chemical ingredients of any kind. It has a coconut-kernel-oil-based fabric softener in it which I think works perfectly. My clothes are always soft, clean and totally static free when they are done drying, and I have no need to use dryer sheets or any other kind of chemical fabric softener. I don’t know _how_ exactly coconut kernel oil makes clothes soft, but it definitely works. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fabric-softners-toxic-especially-for-people-with-bad-livers/596208/3 "2011-09-13T22:55:40Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > I don’t know _how_ exactly coconut kernel oil makes clothes soft, but it definitely works. All fabric softeners work by reducing friction between the body and the fibers in clothing. Many use oil or wax, which is my guess for the one you describe. Of course, I’m always leery of the claim that plant-based materials are necessarily healthy. Cyanide is plant-based, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fabric-softners-toxic-especially-for-people-with-bad-livers/596208/4 "2011-09-14T01:05:34Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Most commercial laundry detergent is also totally loaded with chemicals. You mean like the NaHCO[sub]3[/sub] and CH[sub]3[/sub]COOH that the OP’s cite recommends using? Not to mention that powerful solvent Hydrogen Hydroxide? IOW, saying something is loaded with “chemicals” is meaningless. Something may in fact have **harmful** or **dangerous** chemicals in it, but the word chemical in and of itself does not mean either. Is vinegar a chemical? If not, why not? It is dilute acetic acid after all! PS Presumably the author’s of the cite that the OP mentions are teetotalers, given item 7 in their list of chemicals. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fabric-softners-toxic-especially-for-people-with-bad-livers/596208/5 "2011-09-14T02:05:22Z")
> [@Canadjun](#): > > PS Presumably the author’s of the cite that the OP mentions are teetotalers, given item 7 in their list of chemicals. Ohmygod. I’ll never forgive myself. Just reread my post and saw “author’s” with an apostrophe! Argh! :eek::smack: ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fabric-softners-toxic-especially-for-people-with-bad-livers/596208/6 "2011-09-14T05:15:31Z")
> [@Canadjun](#): > > Ohmygod. I’ll never forgive myself. Just reread my post and saw “author’s” with an apostrophe! Argh! :eek::smack: And I think you meant “site”. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fabric-softners-toxic-especially-for-people-with-bad-livers/596208/7 "2011-09-15T00:54:10Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > And I think you meant “site”. The author’s cite for his comment that fabric softeners might be toxic was a site that discussed all the icky things in them. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fabric-softners-toxic-especially-for-people-with-bad-livers/596208/8 "2011-09-15T01:19:00Z")
The person who wrote that article advertises herself as an “L.Ac.” or Licensed Acupuncturist, in addition to practicing Chinese Herbology (herbology being the new and improved term for herbalism, at least from a marketing standpoint). There is reason to suspect her level of expertise in evaluating toxic exposures and how best to preserve liver function. I have not heard any compelling evidence that fabric softeners pose a dire threat to our livers, whether or not chronic liver disease is present. In general, whenever someone proposes that there are horrific dangers from “toxins” in everyday living that should raise a red flag that the person likely is heavily into woo and unreliable. The vast majority of what these folks call toxins are either not toxic or are harmless in the minute amounts present in whatever product(s) they’re warning against. For the great majority of us, our livers work just fine to detoxify chemicals, including the ones are bodies are busily churning out. :eek: Beyond that, the best thing you can do for your liver is to exercise moderation in consuming alcohol and be careful with acetominophen (i.e.Tylenol), prescription drugs (quite a few of which are hepatotoxic to varying degrees) and “nutritional supplements”, including the “natural products” churned out in support of Chinese Herbology. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fabric-softners-toxic-especially-for-people-with-bad-livers/596208/9 "2011-09-15T01:32:49Z")
I don’t honestly think that fabric softener toxicity is going to kill us all. I certainly haven’t heard any major scare in the media–at least nothing like the “Febreze” hoo-hah of several years ago. (and you might recall THAT was a big bust!) I’ve got asthma, and walking down the laundry detergent aisle at the grocery store makes me gasp and wheeze. Honestly, we don’t really need all those heavy perfumes in our soaps or softeners! If your liver is fine and dandy, I wouldn’t worry. But as in the case of your SO, why not avoid the stuff if you can? I think our use of fabric softener is more of a habit than anything else! If you want fresh smelling clothes, hang them outside to dry! Yeah, they might get a little crunchy, but oh, that freshness can’t be found in a bottle or dryer sheet! ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Cleophus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Cleophus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleophus)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fabric-softners-toxic-especially-for-people-with-bad-livers/596208/10 "2011-09-15T01:51:06Z")
The last item in the OP’s list is particularly laughable. Limonene is the main contributor to the scent of oranges and is naturally found in such large amounts in citrus oil that it is commercially prepared by extracting it from the rind rather than chemical synthesis from a precursor. The claim that it is a carcinogen in humans\* is likewise [unsupportable](http://potency.berkeley.edu/chempages/D-LIMONENE.html). Other groups have even studied it as an _anti_cancer treatment ([D-limonene](http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/69206.cfm)). - Interestingly, male rats but not female rats or mice are affected. Turns out there’s a specific [quirk](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2024047) of male rat kidney physiology that makes them uniquely affected, but there is nothing resembling the affected pathways in humans.