With people who work in laundromats or elsewhere, and basically inhale laundry detergent, fabric softener, etc. on a daily basis - does their body just process and eliminate this stuff, or does all un-natural stuff eventually build up in the body and it’s just a roll of the dice as to who gets cancer or not?
(i.e., years of exposure)
Most of the chemicals in laundry detergents and fabric softeners are not all that volatile. Without the added perfume a laundromat would smell a lot less. And not everything that is inhaled is absorbed by the body or deposited in the lungs.
Working in a laundry does not appear to have an IARC classification, and even working in dry-cleaning is only in category 2B, possibly carcinogenic, but insufficient evidence to conclude. IARC group 2B - Wikipedia
Being a hair dresser or barber is 2A though, but my guess that is related to the use of aerosols.
Most of it, including the surfactants and fragrances do not end up in your body as mentioned above. If they do they are not finely misted aerosolized enough that your mucus membranes/cilia can’t push them out. If something stays behind it will be absorbed and eliminated like anything else. It’s not highly toxic to begin with, the only issue would be quantity of it at once and the body not being able to eliminate it fast enough (I.E. Morons eating Tide pods), which requires deliberate action.
If it was toxic enough and built up easily, it would not be allowed back into our municipal water. Some localities in Wisconsin and Illinois actually allow the ‘grey water’ to be used to water plants and such fit for human consumption as well.