How perfumes and inferior masking agents messes with your hormones

Although many of us love our signature scent, it likely contains chemicals that may wreck havoc on our hormone function. I'm not suggesting we ditch fragrances, but it’s important to know what we are putting on our bodies and to be smart consumers.

Here’s what every woman needs to know about perfume, its impact on hormones, and how to find safer scents:

1. Phthalates are hiding in synthetic perfumes.

Phthalates are associated with serious health issues, but you won’t find them listed on the labels. Ingredients in perfumes are considered a trade secret, so manufacturers can hide hundreds of chemicals under the term “fragrance.” The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics found phthalates in 70% of the perfumes they tested, but they weren't listed on any of the labels.

2. Phthalates are known hormone disruptors.

We’ve heard that hormone disruptors are bad, but what exactly do they do?

A hormone disruptor is a synthetic chemical that when absorbed into the body acts like a hormone. Phthalates effect our hormones by either mimicking or blocking our bodies natural hormones, which leads to disruption of the body’s normal functions. Our bodies produce small amounts of hormones every day, so even slight variations in hormone levels can lead to problems like infertility, metabolic issues, breast cancer, birth defects, diabetes, obesity and more. A recent study from Brigham and Women's Hospital linked phthalates to an increased risk for preterm birth.

3. Wearing perfume effects the health of those around you

When we wear perfume we are increasing the levels of those around us in addition to our personal levels.

For the men in our life, increased phthalate levels have been linked to infertility and decreased sperm count.

For our children, phthalates have been linked to obesity, asthma, behavioral problems, genital changes in boys and early puberty in girls.

A big price to pay for smelling pretty?

4. Avoiding perfume is the most effective way to decrease phthalate exposure.

A recent study tested the urine of pregnant women and found women who used perfume had phthalate concentrations 167 percent higher than non-users.

5. There are natural alternatives (that you will love!).

Avoiding phthalate-loaded perfumes doesn’t mean we have to forgo beautiful scents. Natural perfumes made from essential oils and botanical ingredients are free of synthetic fragrances and other chemicals. Read the labels and look for brands that list natural oils, plants, or specifically state they don’t contain phthalates. Any time you see the ingredient “fragrance” listed on a label, assume phthalates are also present.

Are synthetic perfumes worth the risk? Getting the phthalates out of our bodies means a reduced risk of serious health issues. By choosing natural perfumes we can make a big difference in our exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals, and to those around us. Small changes in the products we use does make a difference.

Strong Masking fragrance , more complaints, landfill closed

Continuing problems at Esabli Landfill in Nari has had another set back as the Environmental Authority has canceled the license of the group involved in managing the site. Clamite Johannes ,  MD of Camak Group , said that after the weekly meeting with the Environmental Authority he was issued with a canceled license to operate writ.  "We believed we were doing the right thing"  he said.

This all happened as they started using a concentrated perfume on the site which was suppose to mask the odors, instead created more complaints.   

With increasing urbanisation putting additional pressure on landfill sites in urban areas, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has taken the first step towards documenting what it considers “undoubtedly the most complex” of all air pollution problems — odour. Urban landfill sites with biodegradable waste in sprawling cities are a major source of odour pollution.

“Our country is very big and there are no standards as yet on how to go about measuring odour, monitoring it or setting parameters for odour pollution,” a senior CPCB official told The Indian Express. Ambient standards are hard to come by, like for air or noise pollution, “the database is non-existent”, the official said.

In early September the CPCB released ‘Odour Monitoring and Management in Urban Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Landfill Sites’, nine years after it first came up with guidelines calling for “accurate, precise and acceptable” measurement of odour, and a need to come up with a database of information to capture the magnitude of odour pollution.

The Centre’s Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, identified odour as a “public nuisance”. The CPCB official said the standards in place are all laid down by foreign countries. “These are not applicable to India since the characteristics of the garbage are very different here,” he said. “This is the first step to even understand how to go about measuring and understanding odour pollution.”

The 2017 guidelines use East Delhi’s Ghazipur landfill site as a “pilot study”, “which recognises the diverse climatic zones of our vast country, hence odour surveys at MSW landfill sites cannot be generalised but to be assessed on a case-to-case basis, taking into account the unique regional — temporal and spatial influences of each MSW landfill site,” the guidelines note.

They reiterate recommendations from the 2008 guidelines, calling for a green belt around landfill sites with selection of “appropriate plant species for vegetation cover” to assist in reducing odour pollution. They also suggest the need for installation of sensor-based continuous odour measurement systems that are currently in place for air, water and noise pollution.

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