Best perfume: Health issues

Perfume ingredients, regardless of natural or synthetic origin, may all cause health problems when used or abused in substantial quantities. Although the areas are under active research, much remains to be learned about the effects of fragnance on human health.

Immunological

Evidence in peer-reviewed journals show that some fragnances can cause asthmatic reaction even when the participants could not actually smell the fragnances. Many fragnance ingredients can cause allergic skin reactions or nausea. In some cases, an excessive use of perfumes may cause allergic reactions of the skin. For more instance, acetophenone, ethyl acetate and acetone while present in many perfumes, are also known or potential respiratory allergens. Nevertheless this may be misleading, since the harm presented by many of these chemicals (either natural or synthetic) is dependent on environmental conditions and their concentrations in a perfume. For instance, linalool, which is listed as an irritant, causes skin irritation when it degrades to peroxides, however the use of antioxidants in perfumes or reduction in concentrations can prevent this. Some research on natural aromatics have shown that many contain compounds that cause skin irritation, however some studies, such as IFRA's research claim that opoponax is too dangerous to be used in perfumery, still lack scientific consensus. It is also true that sometimes inhalation alone can cause skin irritation.

Carcinogenicity

There is scientific evidence that some common ingredients, like certain synthetic musks, can disrupt the ballance of hormones in human body (endocrine disruption) and even cause cancer (nitro-musk). Some natural aromatics, such as oakmoss absolutes, contain allergens and carcinogenic compounds.