For many employees, going to the office stinks.
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Now, employers are trying to in-scent-ivize workers with an inviting aroma wafting through their fluorescent-light-filled halls.
In New York City, in-person work has returned to 70% of pre-pandemic rates, and major companies like Amazon and Meta have implemented a back-to-the-office policy — much to the chagrin of employees.
So some businesses are sniffing out new ways to populate the office, including with signature scents.
Commercial real estate company Hines, for one, is introducing its custom fragrance profile to more than 20 office buildings worldwide this year after pumping the smell through its HVAC system at its Houston headquarters.
Co-CEO Laura Hines-Pierce told the Wall Street Journal this week that “each note was thoughtfully selected” to evoke “a sense of belonging” in any Hines space.
“Our mindset is, ‘How can we reframe the way people think about the office?’” Whitney Bossin Burns, the senior vice president of global client strategy at Hines, told the Journal.
“If we can make it a place where people can associate positive memories with it, we need to do that in every possible realm that we can,” she added.
Scent and memory are intrinsically interlinked — it’s why when you smell freshly baked cookies you may think of your mom during the holidays, or why catching a whiff of a particular perfume summons distant memories of a relative.
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Scents are tied to memories because of the brain’s functioning, which makes it easier to link smells to emotions.pikselstock – stock.adobe.com
“People often do say that the sense of smell conjures up memories so well that they feel as if they were experiencing the event again,” Theresa L. White, a professor and chair of the department of psychology at Le Moyne College, told VeryWell Mind in 2021.
Smells are processed in the olfactory bulb, in the front of the brain. The information is sent to the limbic system, which contains the amygdala and hippocampus and is responsible for emotions and memories.
Because smells have “an incredible power to influence how you feel,” brands are using scents that communicate their core values and identity to form a custom “aroma profile,” Caroline Fabrigas, the CEO of Scent Marketing, told The Post on Thursday.
Through smell, companies want to sell a product or experience to customers. Think Abercrombie & Fitch’s “Fierce,” its signature yet overpowering musk of the early aughts — and how the brand, in an image revamp, replaced it with a white bergamot scent — or the soothing aroma of a Ritz-Carlton.
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Companies either use stand-alone diffusers or pump the scents through HVAC systems, one fragrance expert said.Fototocam – stock.adobe.com
Employers, however, may want to inspire emotions or behaviors that are work-oriented.
“Another way to think about it is: What do you want to inspire in your workplace? Is it creativity? Is it collaboration? Is it a sense of comfort, or is it hyper-productivity and energy?” Fabrigas said, describing the emotional response to scents as “visceral.”
Companies like hers aim to curate bespoke scents that “will help to produce and inspire some of those feelings” in the workplace — for example, a sterile-smelling space post-pandemic.
Hines, meanwhile, sought an “‘I’ve arrived and am ready to be here’ kind of mentality,” explained Neohni Gilligan, the director of fragrance and product marketing for ScentAir, which worked with Hines.
“They wanted both uplifting and relaxing, which is not something that I get all the time,” Gilligan told the Wall Street Journal.
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“It should be your logo in the air or your values in the air,” Caroline Fabrigas, the CEO of Scent Marketing, told The Post.Drazen – stock.adobe.com
Formulating the perfect aroma is an exact science, explained Fabrigas. Citrus is energizing, but it can be too “sharp” and too “clean,” while vanilla is comforting, and jasmine can spur focus.
The changing of seasons may call for different scents, while some businesses might curate their signature smell based on ongoing projects, per the Journal.
Alan R. Hirsch, neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, told the outlet that workplaces should avoid a combination of lavender and pumpkin pie because of its potential to arouse.
“We did a study looking at effects of odors on penile blood flow and found the No. 1 that enhanced blood flow was this combination,” Hirsch said. “I don’t know why.”
When scent marketing is done well, Fabrigas continued, it should serve as a “discreet” backdrop to everyday operations, not an overpowering stench. (Although some workers, per the Journal, have lamented their office’s newfound aroma profiles.)
“It should be your logo in the air or your values in the air,” Fabrigas noted.
It’s nearly impossible to escape the stink of air freshener spray these days. They’re everywhere! In homes, hotel rooms, businesses, and sitting atop the toilets in almost every public restroom.
Are these fragrance-heavy room fresheners harmless? Or are we secretly sabotaging our health when we’re around them? Keep reading to discover 5 reasons spray air fresheners are bad for you, plus get some safe (and super easy!) alternatives to add TRUE clean to your scene.
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Back in the day (you know, when our grandparents walked 10 miles to school and back – barefoot), simply opening up a window was how they got rid of odors.
But when the 80s hit, we didn’t just become obsessed with big bangs, banana clips and all things fluorescent … we fell hard for air fresheners too. That’s because we’ve been conditioned to associate smells with clean.
And it’s a trend that just keeps growing! According to a report by Allied Market Research, the air freshener market is projected to reach $12 billion by 2024. That’s A LOT of room freshener getting sprayed in our homes and indoor environments.
Unfortunately, we’re paying the price for it. An indoor air quality report from the Environmental Protection Agency revealed that Americans spend 90% of their time indoors, where certain pollutants are up to 5 times higher than outdoor concentrations. This begs the question: “What’s even in those things?”
Ever notice how in commercials for air fresheners, a happy family is always bounding around carefree throughout their clutter-free home, spray, spray, spraying air freshener to their hearts’ content? Everything from stinky sneakers to couch pillows and even the poor dog!
And, of course, no commercial is complete without graphics for all those flowers, fresh fruits, and treasures found in the woods and sea that make up their fragrance formulas. Eek – marketing hype at its best!
The reality is, the scent created by most air fresheners likely has ZERO of what they’re showing you in ads. Consider this: a single manufactured “fragrance” can contain hundreds of chemicals. You read that right – HUNDREDS OF CHEMICALS!
And because we’re using these sprays as a kitchen, bathroom and bedroom air freshener, the fragrance (and their chemicals) can literally be everywhere in our homes. In truth, these smells are only covering up odors rather than actually getting rid of them. It’s just fighting one scent with another, often creating a most unpleasant combination. (Who likes the smell of rotten garbage mixed with “pine forest” anyway?)
According to Women’s Voices for the Earth, there are over 3,000 fragrance ingredients declared by the International Fragrance Association (IFRA) to be currently in use in fragrance. Here are a few of them:
Keep in mind, less than 10% of air freshener ingredients are usually disclosed. That’s why if you look closely at products, you’ll often see the word “other” on the label with a high percentage next to it. Savvy consumers want to know what the “other” is, but sadly, we’re likely to be holding our breaths waiting for that to happen.
Phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates) are a controversial family of colorless, odorless chemical compounds, widely used in the manufacturing of plastics, personal care products, and, you guessed it, air fresheners. Why? Because of their ability to make scents last longer. (“Fresh air for hours and all day!”– more marketing hype that’s shoved down our throats!)
Buyer beware: the FDA has no regulations on the use of phthalates and does not require companies to list them on product labels. Instead these chemicals hide under the word “fragrance.”
Companies can get away with this because fragrance formulas are protected under trade secret law, which means companies don’t have to disclose the chemicals that make up that fragrance, and they definitely don’t have to list them out on the product label!
When the CDC tested 289 people, they found high levels of phthalates in all of the subjects’ blood samples. And when the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) evaluated 14 popular air fresheners, 12 of them were found to contain phthalates, even ones that claimed to be “green” or a “natural home deodorizer.”
So unless you see “phthalate free” on the label, or you see fragrance completely omitted from the list of ingredients, there’s a good chance your air freshener contains phthalates.
Who knew that one little innocent word “fragrance” could be doing such a tremendous disservice to our health. But that’s exactly what’s happening.
In addition to all the negative health risks associated with phthalates, here are 5 more health reasons we should proceed with caution when using spray air fresheners, plug-ins, incense, candles and other scented freshening products.
Room freshener sprays contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs), compounds with a low boiling point that form a gas or vapor at room temperature. These include formaldehyde, petroleum distillates, limonene, esters, acetone, acetaldehyde, chloromethane, and 1,4 dioxane. Yikes.
These ingredients are shown to increase the risk of asthma in children, and make existing allergies and asthma even worse. For those who are regularly exposed to air freshener spray, their risk of asthma is 50% greater than air freshener abstainers.
Did you know? In a study of fragrance products, including air freshener spray and plug-ins, researchers identified 20 different VOCs just in the plug-in freshener, including seven regulated as toxic or hazardous under U.S. federal laws.
Unfortunately, a simple “do not inhale” warning is all it takes from the brand, rather than a list of what these compounds in the product are. (Are you starting to see a pattern here? Consumers are really being left in the dark as to what we’re breathing in.) No surprise then that respiratory problems top the list of complaints related to air freshener spray.
Things that make you go hmm: None of us would bust open a can of paint to use as a room freshener, but with similar VOCs, it’s the equivalent of what happens when we spray toxic air fresheners in our homes.
Ever notice that you start to get a pounding in your head when you walk down the grocery store aisle that houses all the plug-ins and odor neutralizer spray? Or maybe you experience it when you’re riding in a car that has a freshly opened air freshener permeating throughout. It’s no coincidence. Technically called osmophobia, this heightened aversion to smells can cause our blood vessels to swell and dilate, which wakes up the nerve system in our brains that trigger head pain.
As noted by the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), an estimated 2.5 million Americans suffer from fragrance allergies. Fragrances can cause allergic-type skin irritation, ranging from itching and redness to rashes.
When participants of a Danish population-based study of allergic diseases were given a questionnaire about symptoms they experienced when they were exposed to fragrance products, 42% reported mucosal symptoms from the eyes and airways.
While more research needs to be done, especially around the long-term effects of air fresheners, there’s no debate around the toxicity of many ingredients in air fresheners. Most fragrance chemicals contain terpenes. When they react with ozone in the air, they produce a host of secondary pollutants, including formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen that’s been linked to cancers of the nose and throat. Most air fresheners already contain formaldehyde and then even more is produced by reacting with ozone in the air – a double whammy.
We’ve been so ingrained to fear smelling bad – no one want to be known around the water cooler as the one with the bad BO, after all – this fear has extended into our homes and businesses. But in our quest to have our surroundings smell like a “Caribbean breeze” or other such enticing smell, it’s likely we’re offending others.
Scents that are tolerable to some may be completely intolerable to others. If you’ve ever stood next to someone who has way overdone it on the cologne, you know what we’re talking about!
According to a Preventive Medicine Report on fragranced consumer products, an Australian study revealed the following:
These same findings appear to be widespread. A fragrance sensitivity study in America revealed that 30.5% of the general population find it irritating when they can smell scented products on others. Additionally, 19% of people reported adverse health effects from air fresheners.
Dogs have up to 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses, compared to us humans with a paltry six million. This means their smelling power surpasses ours by leaps and bounds. Even a cat’s sense of smell is 14 times greater than ours. It also means they’re much more sensitive to fragrance smells and volatile organic compounds.
Long-term effects are even more concerning. It’s shown that cats have an increase in feline asthma in homes where there are air fresheners, incense or cigarette smoke.
Of course, our pets can’t tell us when they’re irritated or uncomfortable – unless they know the trick of lifting their paw and batting the air freshener spray out of our hands.
Pawsitive thought: If you’re interested in becoming a greener pet parent, check out our list of the 5 best eco-friendly pet products.
Go, go green thumb! Yes, plants really can purify the air! They can get rid of toxins like formaldehyde, benzene and xylene. Here are some plants that are amazing at purifying the air, and don’t worry – everything on the list is pet-friendly too!
Hint: you can also use your “phone a friend” lifeline. Sometimes we get so used to our own smells, we become immune to them. We can also be ultra-worried about having odors in the home, especially if we have pets … or teenagers. Ask a friend for their honest opinion on whether or not your home actually smells bad.
The bottom line on odors and air fresheners:
Proceed with caution if you decide to keep using artificial fragrance air fresheners and plug-ins in your home. Even if you don’t feel the effects, such as watery eyes or headaches, this doesn't mean they aren’t doing harm to your body.
The good news is, it’s never too late to adopt a healthier lifestyle and change our habits. And, that’s news everyone wants to hear! So if you have a spray and plug-in loving friend, or you work at a place where air freshener is a part of daily life, be sure to share this post with them.
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