I have to use fragrance and dye free detergent or I am a total mess - hives, pimples, inflamed irritation spots and even fever. I am flat-out allergic to that shit!
this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2024
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Unpopular Opinion
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Our washer died a couple of months ago so we had to hit the laundromat for awhile. Brought our own detergent of course, but we also got the dregs of whatever the last dozen or so people poured into the dispenser. It was like histamine roulette that landed on 00 suspiciously often.
I am as well. Specifically fabric softener. Just walking down that particular aisle in the grocery store makes my lungs burn and eyes water.
I can understand having alternatives and more of the type that don't have any strong aroma or none at all, but can you explain why you would want them outright banned?
I just think that the longer my clothes don't smell like me the better, and having extra fragrance of any pleasant sort would help stave off me coming through for longer.
Not OP but I will take a shot at answering this.
One, fragrance isn't really regulated. There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to exposure to synthetic musks and other synthetics. Studies have found certain musks in tissue and breast milk. They could be linked to issues within the endocrine system. As others have pointed out, these detergents that use high amounts of fragrance can cause skin and respiratory issues.
Two, and I say this as someone that really enjoys the sense of smell, musk is over used. Post WWII every cleaning product began using musk as the main fragrance. Since then, it has become synonymous with clean clothes. Galaxaloid, the main synthetic musk used these days, is in everything including our environment. I remember reading about it being an issue in the Great Lakes.
Lastly, I just find musks to be nauseating. 🤷♂️
Yeah I know it's like AXE body spray, back in my school days it turned changing rooms into gas chambers.
Setting limits on the amount of fragrant compounds and transparency requirements for scented products makes practical sense, and it's not as extreme as banning anything scented.
I have a lot of allergies and certain detergents, especially Gain, will cause me to wheeze and break out into hives. I have walked into or near stores where the employees doused it in so much fragrance that I immediately have an asthma response and run away. Hell, sometimes those automated bathroom sprays set me off.
For me, if my clothes smell like nothing, they are generally considered clean. The worst is when someone visits and the incredibly strong fragrances from their clothes stick to the furniture or bed. Thankfully this issue has been resolved through communication.
Companies are not required to tell you what madness is in their fragrances. Banning them is one thing, but finally regulating and doing more studies on the negative effects would be a start. Stopping stores from spraying it on clothes and in general would be nice too.
There's a river trail I like to walk regularly. The trail crosses over a creek that frequently smells like laundry detergent and occasionally like sewage. Laundry fragrances aren't effectively removed with waste treatment practices. Think of the amount of fragrance that stays on your clothes after at least one rinse cycle. The amount of fragrance being sent into the wastewater systems is much higher than what remains on your laundry.
I can't find any studies, but I would be shocked if that doesn't really mess with a bunch of aquatic life. Considering how popular bait scents and attractant are with anglers, I believe many fish species rely on scent to find food. Laundry fragrance would almost certainly be overwhelming and negatively affect the ability to search for food for those fish.
Maybe I'm just biased since common fragrances can give me migraines.
a creek that frequently smells like laundry detergent and occasionally like sewage. Laundry fragrances aren’t effectively removed with waste treatment practices
Maybe you should see if you can find a way to follow up - maybe something isn’t working right or some business is taking a shortcut
I’m sure we’re all biased by our experiences. In my case, I don’t like strongly scented stuff but can generally tolerate it. I think of it in the same box as someone putting on too much perfume/cologne, or someone smoking whatever where the rest of us have to walk through. It’s annoying af.
So my biased attitude is that there are choices and every time I choose an unscented product, I help generate profit incentive for more of the same. I can also choose to make a big deal of it where I live, and I can choose not to spend time or money with people or places that stink.
But it’s their choice too. They can stink if they want to. We can leave your friends behind 'Cause your friends do stink and if they do stink,Well, they're no friends of mine.
As a libertarian I can weigh in here.
Things that are legitimate for the government to control include things that affect other people without their consent.
This means it’s valid to require a driver’s license, but not to require a license to practice medicine. But it is valid to require licensure to be an ER worker (treatment happens there without patient consent).
It also means it’s legit to ban scented detergents, given scents are a communal thing.
I‘m genuinely confused, you don’t think doctors should be regulated? Like, at all?
Interesting take. I do think spread of scents in the environment can be studied.
The practice medicine part of your comment doesn't make sense to me, as it does affect the community. When you need a doctor you need to differentiate between the ones that have studied science for years and know who the specialists are who can best deal with your medical issue, the "doctors" that import a wide variety of spices to make things that treat symptoms at best, and the hucksters that sell glowy rocks and fragrances that supposedly have magic healing power. Licenses do that.
They are better than dishwasher tablets with strong smells. There is nothing like a cup of tea that smells like a chemical plant
I think the difference here is that you don't carry your teacups around in a crowded bus at 7:30 am to annoy (and potentially endanger) other people.
Many places have adopted "fragrance bans" or etiquettes for that specific reason.
The EU has banned many fragrances based on health risks (e. g. somewhat recently, lilial).
Endanger people how?
Allergies. Very popular fabric softeners contain one perfume that makes me asthmatic, every year someone in the office has watched a fabric softener commercial and thinks they are a good idea.
They are not.
Ingredients used for fragrance are known endocrine disrupters, eg. pthalates in personal care products, perfumes, and yes, laundry detergents and softeners. I really thought this was common knowledge, but not outside the chemistry community, I guess?
And both are better than scented Damprid
Why? Having an unpopular opinion is fine, but I'd really like to understand your reasoning.
Not OP but I hate strong smells, even pleasant strong smells.
Yes it's probably a sensory processing thing, I dunno, I just know that I can only handle about 3 blissful seconds of Gain before I want to yeet it out of the house.
I feel like I'm dying when I go down the detergent aisle.
At least it's not the candle isle.
There are detergents that don’t have “pulling floral potpourri out of Spring’s ass” amount of scent. I too despise strong scents in laundry, and step one is not buying a detergent that advertises being scented, the same goes for dryer sheets if you use them. You can also cut or tear dryer sheets in half to reduce the amount of scent, and quite often a half sheet works every bit as good as a whole one.
But that's how I can tell if I can wear something a few more times before I have to wash it again! If I can still smell detergent then it's still technically "clean"
Exactly. It's like a battery life indicator for clothes.
Y'all need hampers
So, only wear clothes once between washes?
I wear jeans and tshirts for a few days between washes. Not days in a row, i chuck them on a clothes horse between wears.
But when the smell goes from "laundry" to "me" i know i shouldnt wear it again, and it goes into the "hamper". As long as it isnt visibly dirty or stinky, why wash it?!
I feel ya, I'll wear jeans 3-4 days before switching, but tshirts are daily. But I also sweat a lot. Fresh socks and undies each day as well.
Huh. Whenever I'm in a situation where I have to use a laundry-powder/soap/shampoo/etc with fragrance: if I can still smell the fragrance then I figure it's still technically dirty, so I need to keep rinsing.
Let's not forget stinky dryer sheets and, if that is not enough, they are now marketing "scent booster beads" FFS
"Scent maracas." God I hate that Pandora ad.
I don’t know your situation, but the smell of that stuff has never bothered me.
Same with dishwasher tablets
It's a psychological trick. They want you to associate those smells with "clean" so that when you have a bunch of perfumed laundry you think "wow this smells really clean!" "Clean" actually smells like nothing.
I avoid scented laundry stuff but at the same time I like wearing fragrances (in small amounts) so I guess I'm not on team no smells.
They still have scents? I thought they actually reduced or eliminated them since I was a kid, mostly at they could sell those little fragrance pellets to make more money.
Granted, I also miss the fresh laundry smell that, I think, was from way too hot gas dryers I grew up with. Wasn't a fragrance from any detergent, I think.
Buncha' weaklings in here
I'm not sure that's an unpopular opinion?
Alternative take: nothing should be banned