Plug-in air fresheners: the chemicals they release

Plug-in air fresheners are easy to suspect when you worry about cancer at home. This page covers what EPA says about the chemicals they release and simple ways to cut exposure.

The EPA has a page about volatile organic compounds indoors. VOCs are chemicals that evaporate into the air at room temperature. The page names the household products that release them. The list includes paints and paint strippers. It includes aerosol sprays, cleansers and disinfectants. It includes pesticides and dry-cleaned clothing. And it includes moth repellents and air fresheners.

So yes. An air freshener belongs on the list of things that put VOCs into your home's air. That much is plain, and it comes straight from the agency.

Here the wording matters. Read it slowly. The EPA writes that some organics can cause cancer in animals. Some are suspected or known to cause cancer in humans. It names examples. Methylene chloride is known to cause cancer in animals. Perchloroethylene has been shown to cause cancer in animals. Benzene is a known human carcinogen.

Notice what that wording does. It describes a large family of chemicals. Some members of that family are dangerous. It does not say the freshener in your hallway outlet raises your cancer risk. The agency makes no such claim. Neither will we.

The honest position is this. Air fresheners are a VOC source. The cancer question for these particular products is not answered on the page.

The agency lists these effects for VOC exposure in general:

• Eye and respiratory tract irritation
• Headaches, dizziness, and visual and memory problems
• Damage to the liver, kidneys and central nervous system

Those are the effects it puts its name to. Maybe you get a headache or scratchy eyes whenever a certain product is running. Then you are noticing something the EPA calls a recognized effect of these chemicals. That alone is a fair reason to think about unplugging it. You never need to reach for the word cancer.

The agency's advice is practical and cheap:

• Increase ventilation when you use products that give off VOCs.
• Never mix household products unless the label says to.
• Avoid storing opened containers of unused paints and similar materials indoors.
• Buy only the amount you will use fairly soon.
• Take unwanted products to a community hazardous waste collection. Do not stockpile them.

The agency adds one tip that surprises people. The agency also says to avoid taking home dry-cleaned clothes that have a strong chemical odor.

Fresheners make an easy villain. They are obviously artificial. They smell strong. The ingredients on the box are unreadable. Then someone in a family is diagnosed with cancer. The mind starts hunting for a cause it can see and remove.

The truth is less satisfying. Indoor air holds a mix of things from many sources at once. Fresheners fall into an awkward category. The general warning about VOCs is real. But the specific evidence about these products is not laid out for you.

Say you want to act anyway. Act on the parts that are clear. Open windows more often. Use less of everything scented and sprayed. Pay attention to what gives you symptoms. That approach costs almost nothing. And it does not require anyone to overstate the science.

It also gives you something to do. That matters more than it sounds. A worry with no action attached tends to grow. A worry with a short list of steps tends to shrink.