Household Products

A wide range of household products contain fragrance. Household cleaning products had sales of over $2.5 billion in 2001. Sales of laundry products topped $7 billion. About 35% of the raw fragrance materials produced annually are used in detergents, soaps, and cleaning products.

Laundry products are often highly scented. Whole ad campaigns focus on the scent lasting for days if not weeks. The scents are persistent and have high impact. Cleaning products are highly scented as well. In addition to cleaning products, fragrance is often added to trash bags and other such items.

In addition to fragrance in functional products, there is also a surge in use of products used to primarily scent the air. Sales of home fragrances are over $2 billion annually with sales of candles making up over $900 million of the total. The US market for incense is over $2 billion. Candles and incense due to burning pose significant concerns of their own.

Scented products used in the household provides a constant source of exposure to fragrance. Laundry provides a 24 hour a day exposure from the clothes that are worn to the sheets on the bed. Additionally environmental fragrance is both in the air and settled on furniture, carpets, and household furnishings. There is an accumulation of fragrance from products not only used at the present, but from those used days, weeks, even months ago.

Products such as cleaners and laundry items end up going down the drain and potentially contaminate waterways and aquatic wildlife.