About the Air Fresheners Fact Sheet (2024)

3.1. Air freshener products

Air fresheners or air care products are products that deliver ambient fragrance substances, which serve to mask or remove perceived unpleasant odours or to create a pleasant ambiance due to the presence of perceived nice smells (EC, 2010; Cleanright.eu, 2020). They can take many forms: from scented candles and potpourris to sprays and plug-in devices, with many different fragrances to choose from (Cleanright.eu, 2020). The Air Fresheners Fact Sheet covers the major sources of exposure from the use of air fresheners by consumers. Products that are available on the consumer market to be used to diffuse pleasant scents or to mask unpleasant odours in the home (e.g. living rooms, toilets) or in the car are covered by this Fact Sheet. Products that are meant to be used on items in the house, e.g. on furniture, are included as well as products used as sprays, electric plug-in evaporators, wax melts, scented candles, impregnated solids, odour masks and other products (Table 3.1).

It should be noted that not all fragranced consumer products are considered to be air fresheners. Fragranced consumer products that are intended for personal care, such as perfumes and deodorants, are described in the Cosmetics Fact Sheet (Bremmer et al. 2006a), and fragranced cleaning and laundry products are described in the Cleaning Products Fact Sheet (Meesters et al., 2018). There are, however, products available on the consumer market that serve as both air fresheners and cleaning products, such as toilet rim blocks, furniture sprays, textile sprays, carpet sprays and carpet powders. These products are therefore included in both the Cleaning Products and the Air Fresheners Fact Sheets. They are also included as consumer products in ConsExpo Web under both categories.

Product types that are suitable as both home and toilet air fresheners, such as gel diffusers, potpourri, and capillary reed or wood diffusers, are categorised in this Fact Sheet as ‘home’ air fresheners as opposed to ‘toilet’ air fresheners. Consumer exposure to these products is most considerable when they are used as home air fresheners, because the time spent in a toilet room is limited compared with the time spent in the rest of the home. It is thus anticipated that these products yield higher exposure estimates when they are used as home air fresheners. Toilet sprays and toilet rim blocks, on the other hand, are marketed and developed for specific use in the toilet room only (EC, 2010).

Car air fresheners and fabric fresheners are also distinct products, because they are not substitutable as home air fresheners. Car air fresheners are generally marketed for specific use inside a car. They are therefore available on the market in appropriate formats, such as fragrance-infused papers that can be hung inside the car, or low-voltage electrical fresheners to plug into the car’s electronic device socket and work with the car’s ventilation system. Car air freshener products would have little or no functionality in a home, where larger formats are required (EC, 2010).

Fabric fresheners are used to freshen up curtains, carpets or sofas, but are not suitable for eliminating unpleasant odours in the whole home or to create an ambiance, as home air fresheners can.

Animal odour mask products are used to treat objects or surfaces that smell bad because of the presence pets leaving urine stains, hair or dander.

This Fact Sheet principally aims to guide in predicting exposure arising from the use of specific products, independently of the substance of interest. The default values that are presented serve to characterise consumer use of air fresheners. Information about specific substances within the air freshener, such as concentrations and physical-chemical properties, must be considered in the exposure assessment separately by the evaluator. Exposures that are not realistic, such as dermal exposure to gel air fresheners that are in plastic containers, are not considered in this Fact Sheet.

3.2. Ingredients in air fresheners

For air fresheners, disclosure of all ingredients is not required by European legislation, and typically this information is not presented (Steinemann, 2017). The major ingredients of air fresheners can be classified according to their function as a colourant, fragrance, gelling agent, propellant, solvent, surfactant or thickener (Table 3.2).