by Hally Joseph, staff writer
These days, everything seems to be bad for us, from gluten in our food to chemicals in cans of Febreze. One look at the ingredients in our everyday soaps and body washes – glucocolyturbinewhat? – and furthered research into their chemical matter prove that Americans still have no idea what we’re using daily in our hygienic products, but we’ll slather it all over as long as it says buzz words like “clean,” “fresh scent” or “whitening.” If it’s available at the local Publix, what could it hurt?
On a class assignment to research a chemical-based product I use daily, I knew my object of choice: the Air Wick plug-in warming oil fragrance. These glass orbs of fragrant oil snap into a plastic fixture you plug in to your wall for scents like Fresh Waters, Island Paradise and Cool Linen & White Lilac, with seasonal off-shoots of Apple Cinnamon Medley, Frosted Pine & Twinkling Lights and Pumpkin Pie & Cream. As the oil heats, the smell permeates the room in a clean and non-offensive way, greeting you the minute you walk inside.
After getting a whiff of one in a friend’s apartment, an Air Wick plug-in warming oil fragrance has been barnacled to my wall for six months, making my room smell like Lavender & Chamomile. I could merrily continue on this freshened path forever, alternating scents with the season. But after reading tales of catastrophic chemicals permeating the air freshener industry without public awareness, I worried my Lavender & Chamomile were more harm than help. Are you killing me, wondrous smells? Little did I know that my search for truth would be a wild goose chase of product proportions.
What exactly is inside the glass plug-ins pumping fake oil scents throughout the homes of North Americans everywhere? Pick one up at your local Publix and the back reads: “For ingredients and other information, www.airwick.com.” On their green hued website, the Oil Warmers each have their own individual pages with photographs, customer reviews, the option to “buy now” or to tweet them to your followers or “like” them on Facebook.
Knowing the information is hidden in here somewhere, you’ll find the “About Us” tab doesn’t have anything helpful, but the “Contact Us” tab has a link for those seeking “ingredient information.” This link takes you to the website of Reckitt Benckiser, whose other clients include companies such as Lysol, Mucinex and Clearasil. “At last!” you think – here are the details, the ingredient information so bad it had to be listed on a separate website where customers are unlikely to find it. But then, through careful clicking, there is another hitch in your plans. While some of Air Wick’s sprayable air fresheners have ingredients like propane, isobutene and propylene glycol listed, the Scented Oil pages simply say the oils contain “Fragrance.” What’s in the fragrance? You won’t find out here, but it defines the word “fragrance” with beautiful redundancy: “Changes the odor of a product to impart a pleasant odor or to impart a pleasant fragrance in the air during or after product use.”
Due to legal loopholes, Air Wick and other companies with air fresheners do not have to publicly display the ingredients their products use. While many earth-conscious blogs beckon people to find natural ways to keep the air fresh in your home, Americans continue to buy products such as Air Wick scented oils without any public knowledge of them being harmful. Perhaps Air Wick is banking on the fact that I don’t know what is in the fragrance but I do know that my room smells amazing, that ignorance of the former is bliss and knowledge of the latter is worth not knowing the truth. And perhaps they’re right.