It’s called formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen. You know that weird smell a new car has? That’s off-gassing, and what you’re breathing in probably contains formaldehyde. Formaldehyde fumes can also trigger asthma attacks, headaches, and skin and eye irritation.
In the home, formaldehyde is found as a preservative in air fresheners, spray starch, shampoos, deodorants and many other products. The problem is, it’s not always listed as an ingredient. And sometimes it’s listed as part of another ingredient or can contaminate another ingredient, like the sodium laureth sulfate commonly used in shampoos.
The best advice for avoiding formaldehyde is, if you can’t pronounce an ingredient, don’t buy the product. Essential oil diffusers can be used instead of air fresheners, non-SLS shampoos are now commonly found (Dr. Bronner’s castile soap makes fine shampoo, for instance, and is so useful around the house), and so are natural deodorants.
