From the University of Washington comes news of a terrible scourge of air pollution coming from America’s suburban wasteland. Yes, it’s the unregulated clothes dryer vent. I see a whole new division of the EPA just for this major threat and compliance teams confiscating fabric softener sheets with that cute little bear on the box and boxes of Cheer nationwide.
Scented laundry products emit hazardous chemicals through dryer vents
The same University of Washington researcher who used chemical sleuthing to deduce what’s in fragranced consumer products now has turned her attention to the scented air wafting from household laundry vents.
Findings, published online this week in the journal Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health, show that air vented from machines using the top-selling scented liquid laundry detergent and scented dryer sheet contains hazardous chemicals, including two that are classified as carcinogens.
“This is an interesting source of pollution because emissions from dryer vents are essentially unregulated and unmonitored,” said lead author Anne Steinemann, a UW professor of civil and environmental engineering and of public affairs. “If they’re coming out of a smokestack or tail pipe, they’re regulated, but if they’re coming out of a dryer vent, they’re not.”
The research builds on earlier work that looked at what chemicals are released by laundry products, air fresheners, cleaners, lotions and other fragranced consumer products. Manufacturers are not required to disclose the ingredients used in fragrances, or in laundry products.
For the new study, which focuses on chemicals emitted through laundry vents, researchers first purchased and pre-rinsed new, organic cotton towels. They asked two homeowners to volunteer their washers and dryers, cleaned the inside of the machines with vinegar, and ran full cycles using only water to eliminate as much residue as possible.
At the first home, they ran a regular laundry cycle and analyzed the vent fumes for three cases: once with no products, once with the leading brand of scented liquid laundry detergent, and finally with both the detergent and a leading brand of scented dryer sheets. A canister placed inside the dryer vent opening captured the exhaust 15 minutes into each drying cycle. Researchers then repeated the procedure with a different washer and dryer at a second home.
Analysis of the captured gases found more than 25 volatile organic compounds, including seven hazardous air pollutants, coming out of the vents. Of those, two chemicals – acetaldehyde and benzene – are classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as carcinogens, for which the agency has established no safe exposure level.
“These products can affect not only personal health, but also public and environmental health. The chemicals can go into the air, down the drain and into water bodies,” Steinemann said.
The researchers estimate that in the Seattle area, where the study was conducted, acetaldehyde emissions from this brand of laundry detergent would be equivalent to 3 percent of the total acetaldehyde emissions coming from automobiles. Emissions from the top five brands, they estimate, would constitute about 6 percent of automobiles’ acetaldehyde emissions.
“We focus a lot of attention on how to reduce emissions of pollutants from automobiles,” Steinemann said. “And here’s one source of pollutants that could be reduced.”
The project’s website also includes letters from the public reporting health effects from scented consumer products. Steinemann says that people’s reports of adverse reactions to fragranced air coming from laundry vents motivated her to conduct this study.
Steinemann recommends using laundry products without any fragrance or scent.
Co-authors are Lisa Gallagher and Amy Davis at the UW, and Ian MacGregor at Battelle Memorial Institute.
For more information, contact Steinemann at acstein@uw.edu. She is best reached via email.
More information about the research, including a copy of the article, is at http://depts.washington.edu/exposure/
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This research group appears to make a habit of producing work of questionable quality accompanied by press releases that are written in alarmist language.
http://www.wca-environment.com/are-university-press-officers-bringing-science-into-disrepute-and-are-they-being-aided-and-abetted-by-their-academics/
Just like a well known climate scientist “there are some scientists whose papers I no longer read”
So which is more troublesome perfume chemicals from dryer vents, or radiation from Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant? Life is risky, getting out of bed takes courage, on a long enough time line we are all dead. Let’s not sweat the small stuff. I’d say we get more chemical exposure in our food and cooking utensils from China, than dryer vents. I’d venture to say that outgassing of plastics in modern cars produces more “toxic” chemicals than dryer vents, especially after being parked in the sun all day.
The only bright spot in this entire study is no mention of public funding for this research. I like a clean environment as much as the next goob, but I’m certain coal power plants produce much more pollution than all the dryers in the world combined.
What next, attack bathroom vents?
Just think of all the dangerous gasses that are emitted from bathrooms….
Does this mean it is no longer safe to wash your bed linen????
My home owners association prohibits clothes lines . While I don’t particularly like scented dryer sheets , they do help with static electricity .
They point the finger at the manufacturers of those laundry fragrance. If they emit benzene that is REAL pollution that should and is easy to remove. Besides, when you use those sort of liquids or sheets, you reduce significantly the life of your dryer. For those using those laundry fragrance do this test… take the lint filter off and clean it of the lint and then put water on it. You will see how it pearls. Now clean it with an old toothbrush and a bit of dish soap. Do the same test again with the water and you will find that the water just goes through easily. The chemicals in the fragrance plugs slowly your lint filter and doing so reduces the air flow. The coils over heat and not only it reduces the efficiency of drying it also reduces the life of the coils.
The problem I have is when they say that “dryer vents are essentially unregulated and unmonitored”. Again, it is not the consumer that should be responsible but the manufacturers. That hole in our derrières also emits a whole lot of “dangerous” chemicals. When will be the time when they will want to “monitor” and “regulate” (or tax) our personal emissions?
Why run vinegar through the washer? Because in 1998 the EPA banned phosphates in detergents and mold now is able to grow in washing machines. You can’t see it because it is on the inside of the tub. I have tried to remove it with vinegar to no avail. I had to replace one washing machine prematurely already. The majority of phosphates could be scrubbed by existing sewage treatment technology with further improvements easily generated with the right incentives. In 2010, 16 states banned phosphates in dishwasher detergent. Now we have white spots on our dishes even using a rinse agent and we have mold growing on most of the plastic components.
The EPA, along with state run EPAs are not scientific organizations. The ban on phosphates is a knee jerk reaction to a very real problem. Instead of addressing the problems on a case by case basis, determining safe levels of realease, seeking public assistance in reducing phosphate use, and creating incentives for technological development, they choose to make us live with mold by banning a substance.
We like the scented fabric softener and feel no ill effects. And I want my phosphate detergents back.
To top it off, many communities have a ban on clotheslines, so what are we supposed to do?
Oh, I know. Everyone go down to the river and beat your clothes on a rock, then put ’em on wet. Yeah… that’s the ticket… until the EPA starts requlating the type of rocks you’re allowed to use.
/Dang! Wish it was sarc but ‘fraid not
P.S. No scented laundry stuff for me… tend to get a dermal reaction. Don’t need the gub’mint to tell me not to use scented products.
Should be labeled as citizen science, considering the “experiments” were done on two sets of used washers/dryers in actual homes. Funding for this kind of “research” must be even worse off than for climate sceptics.
We don’t need no stinkin nanny state.
That said, the vapors are probably not too good for us. Same goes for all those indoor air freshener devices. I just talk with my wallet and don’t purchase them. If others want to that’s fine by me.
In 1997 I spent a day meeting with representatives of the EPA Region V headquarters in Chicago. They came out to discuss issues surrounding inclusion of a Midwest utility’s service area in the region covered by regulations proposed to safeguard vulnerable East Coast states (which weren’t doing much of anything about their own emissions, specifically from transportation, and wanted to fob off responsibility on the schmucks in the Midwest,) against having their air sullied by our generation.
Someone at the table asked if, in pursuit of emission reductions, the EPA had considered regulating residential water heaters. It may have been a joke; I don’t know, but the EPA didn’t take it as one. Without hesitation, an EPA official responded, “We actually looked at that,” and explained that the idea was a non-starter, but only because of “manpower issues.” He clearly conveyed that the only reason EPA could think of not to regulate home water heaters was the practical difficulty of hiring a big enough army of federal snoopers to make sure you weren’t taking too hot a shower every morning.
Earlier in the same meeting, a state-level air bureaucrat talked about “travel demand management.” (Can you visualize the uniforms?) He explained there weren’t enough industrial emissions in one region of the state to reach “attainment” by reducing them. Transportation reductions would be the only way that could be done, he said. Planning to visit Grandma? Better have your permits in order.
Now we have the dryer vent crisis, the opening bell of a campaign to force the rest of you back to using outdoor clotheslines to offset the emissions from the bureaucrats referenced above running their dryers.
The takeaway message here is that there is absolutely no detail of your life these people will not attempt to control in order to reinforce their personal pretense of saving the planet—a conceit adopted, consciously or otherwise, to let them feel virtuous about doing exactly as they please at all times.
Let’s face it: clothes dryers are evil. Not only do they emit toxic gases, they also produce huge amounts of water vapor – a potent greenhouse gas. Plus they consume electricity which is a by-product of the coal industry and sometimes burn natural gas, emitting even more pollution. We might as well have nuclear reactors in the laundry room. Hopefully, we will be saved by a flurry of government regulations and and army of inspectors before all life on Earth is destroyed.
When will the foolishness end? Not that of study and research, but of publication and appeal for legislation.
We can do without the scented dryer sheets, heck we can do without dryers! But do we HAVE to? Really?
The MSM have a complete lack of self-awareness except for their own importance. We’d be stared out of the boardroom for making an issue of such a thing, and be audited for how we are spending the company’s money and time.
Let’s not forget why perfume was invented in the first place. The “consensus” was that bathing was bad for your health.
Diary note: Must give up sniffing dryer vents.
Laboratory notebook: Should have used new machines to eliminate possible internal contamination. Should have sampled room air before, during and after tests for analysis. Should have sampled mains water before, during and after tests for analysis. Must buy another bottle of vinegar. Must learn to acquire a sense of proportion.
I cannot stand the smell of perfumed laundry detergent in my clothes especially my shirts. IMO only people with a very poor sense of smell are able to tolerate it. The worst for me is how it overpowers and ruins the smell of just about anything I am eating. (Am I eating a chicken sandwich or an artificial lilac sandwich here?..)
My wife tries to buy ordinary non-scented detergent but now some brands are making it difficult to determine if there is perfume in them, (you have get out the 4X reading glasses to read the fine print.)
I use liquid “Downy” fabric softener, not sure why, other than my mother always used to.
The following (verbatim) excerpt from my current container has always made me wonder what the product contains:
“Warning: Liquid fabric softener can increase fabric flammability.
Using more than recommended can increase this effect.
Do not use this product:
On children’s sleepwear or garments labeled as flame resistant as it may reduce flame resistance.
On garments made with fluffier fabrics (such as fleece, velour, chenille, and terry cloth).”
Is there even a passing mention of the above in the research ?
Maybe it is not grant worthy ?
Sorry, kind of a pet peeve of mine.
I can just imagine a group of Green activists catalogued every labor saving device and petitioned any number of federal agencies or universities to do “studies” which show how dangerous they are:
Air Conditioners
Toilets
Light bulbs
Autos
Refrigerators
Clothes Dryers
And the list goes on and on. In 1-2 decades we will all (save our Minders) be living like European peasents from the Middle Ages.
“Analysis of the captured gases found more than 25 volatile organic compounds, including seven hazardous air pollutants, coming out of the vents. Of those, two chemicals – acetaldehyde and benzene – are classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as carcinogens, for which the agency has established no safe exposure level.”
OK, form now on, DO NOT SIT NEXT TO DRYER VENT. If you did, it is 25 to life in the slammer
The study has left out at least one control: Monitoring the output from the dryer vent when fragrance-free detergent alone was used. The study was not structured to be able to confirm that there are only emissions when an odor can be detected. I would think that there could still be chemicals in the emissions even when there is no odor. Many chemicals are odorless.
I was poisoned in a industrial chemical accident 26 years ago, as the result of the accident I am ultra sensitive to many organic chemicals that come out of dryer vents. We now live in the country, out of an attempted to avoid the toxic fumes. Many times if the wind is just right we receive the strong fragrance levels form 2 to 3 miles away. Some people do not think there is enough perfume in the laundry products to begin with, so they add more. EPA in cooperation published a large study conducted in early 90’s in California showing that one of the primary sources of indoor air pollutants were laundry products and personal care products. Most people would be appalled if they had any idea of the amounts and types of chemicals that they are putting in their clothing and on their bodies.
Do these people really, really not see how utterly idiotic their article is on its own terms? Even taking their “estimate” seriously (quite a leap), “in the Seattle area, where the study was conducted, acetaldehyde emissions from this brand of laundry detergent would be equivalent to 3 percent of the total acetaldehyde emissions coming from automobiles. Emissions from the top five brands, they estimate, would constitute about 6 percent of automobiles’ acetaldehyde emissions.”
OK, check. In other words, 16 times as much airborne acetaldehyde as in these little whatzises has no detectable effect on human health. Do these imbeciles really have nothing better to do? And is the journal Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health really so hard up for articles to publish?
I don’t use dryer sheets, because I air dry my laundry 9 months out of the year (Texas). Saves on the utility bill, and takes about as long as a machine in 100 degree temps, plus they dry without wrinkles(I hang them without creases)
Over-scented effluent from laundry vents = absolutely infuriating (particularly in high-density neighborhoods where the plumes can be truly overwhelming), so PLEASE regulate REGARDLESS of toxicity!!
A ‘possum recently crawled into my sister’s dryer vent and got fried when she dried that last load. Poor Pogo. Let’s see them regulate those emissions!