Deodorants, perfumes, soaps pollute air at levels as high as cars

Specifically volatile organic compounds, because cars don't emit very much of that particular type of pollution anymore. If you look at overall emissions across all types of air pollution, cars are still much worse.

&quot;Most organic compounds in soaps and detergents dissolve in water and end up in sewer systems (20), with negligible amounts emitted from wastewater treatment plants (21)&quot;<p>I didn&#x27;t read the full paper, but this is the only mention of soap in there. Soap seems to be okay with respect to air pollution. Mind you, a lot of &quot;bath bars&quot; on the market these days are <i>not</i> soap, but that&#x27;s a completely different topic.<p>Perhaps the article about this paper (and unwashed hippies in general) are wrong about soap?<p>From the abstract:<p>&quot;A detailed mass balance demonstrates that the use of volatile chemical products (VCPs)—including pesticides, coatings, printing inks, adhesives, cleaning agents, and personal care products now constitutes half of fossil fuel VOC emissions in industrialized cities.&quot;<p>Okay... That is <i>not</i> what the linked article says at all.

I know it sounds strange, but if you can make it through the first month or two of not using body soap or shampoo regularly you&#x27;ll be better off in all ways. You won&#x27;t need styling product for your hair, it will have a natural oil that works. You won&#x27;t need deodorants or perfumes. And, if you can switch to cold showers, you won&#x27;t need to use moisturizers either.<p>I know 10 or 15 minute cold showers are less pleasant, but they wake you up and make the rest of the winter less hellish. I actually love the cold at this point.

I&#x27;ve had many a walk through the neighborhood spoiled by one household doing the laundry, and using Downy or some other fabric softener. It stinks up the whole neighborhood. Not to mention the scent overload when people wear clothes treated this way to work.<p>Just use white vinegar instead - it works and doesn&#x27;t cause all the pollution.

Fun fact: east asians (Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Mongols) seldom use deodorants, because of a mutation of the gene ABCC11 (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;ABCC11" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;ABCC11</a>) resulting in dramatic reduction of the sweat glands responsible for the strong body odor.

There&#x27;s a funny thing going on here which cuts both ways, you get used to your own smells. This means that if you don&#x27;t use deodorant (or don&#x27;t shower regularly!) by the time your own BO smell is noticeable you are, in fact, quite ripe and other people around you have been noticing <i>a lot</i>. And on the other hand, if you use scented deodorants, soap&#x2F;body wash, detergent, dryer sheets, or perfume the level where you can smell them distinctly is where they are basically overpowering for someone who hasn&#x27;t been steeping in them for days&#x2F;weeks. Which is why such scented things tend to have such overpowering smells, they&#x27;re calibrated to a level of smell for someone who is already used to that smell.<p>Unfortunately, the middle ground isn&#x27;t well represented in the market. I long ago made the switch to more lightly scented and unscented hygiene products and sometimes it takes a lot more work than it should. Fortunately there are clothes detergents and dryer sheets that are unscented that you can buy in many stores, however for body wash and deodorant I basically always have to buy online (I ended up just using an &quot;unscented body wash base&quot; and a fragrance free hypoallergenic anti-perspirant). It&#x27;s very frustrating to have such a simple need (fragrance free common products) be so difficult to fulfill. Maybe things will change, I remember when it was hard to find soy milk in most grocery stores and that&#x27;s changed dramatically.

I don&#x27;t get it. Soap doesn&#x27;t seem very volatile. The article leads with deodorant and soap but the rest is about paint and lacquer, which seem way more volatile than soap.<p>How does my soap get into the air? Is it volatile and I just don&#x27;t know?

The scents they use in air fresheners, candles, whatever, are just plain 100% pure evil. I&#x27;ve had more migraines and asthma attacks in the months they put in new air fresheners at work than the entire decade before. There should be laws against it.

I&#x27;ve been using a stainless steel &quot;deoderant stick&quot; [1] (it&#x27;s just metal, no chemicals) for several years in the shower and its greatly reduced the amount of normal deodorant I use. The steel does a good job of eliminating odors. I only supplement with a dry-stick deodorant if I know I&#x27;m going to be getting hot and sweaty - most days at the office I skip it. Saves a lot of money too, since one of these will last you a whole lifetime most likely.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Odor-Works-Natural-Deodorant-Alternative&#x2F;dp&#x2F;B0040Y5JTO&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Odor-Works-Natural-Deodorant-Alternat...</a>

So if I want to keep using deodorant and soap, is there an environmentally-friendly class of products I should steer towards? (I tend to use bar soap and stick deodorant.)

Does this also apply to unscented versions of these products?<p>I strongly dislike scented products and try to purchase as few as possible. But it is usually impossible to find unscented soap&#x2F;shampoo&#x2F;deodorant in many stores. I&#x27;ve never understood why... Do consumers really so strongly prefer hand soap with arbitrary smells added to it?

Sweat itself doesn&#x27;t have much of a stink. But if you let it ferment, it is unbearable. As long as you take a bath daily, change to a fresh pair of clothes daily and are not sweating all the time, BO is never really a problem.

Priceonomics (which I believe is a YC company?) recently did a write-up on VOCs in common household products and the resulting effect on air quality in your home. The results definitely surprised me and I switched a few of my cleaning supplies: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;priceonomics.com&#x2F;which-cleaning-products-pollute-your-home-the-most&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;priceonomics.com&#x2F;which-cleaning-products-pollute-you...</a>

There&#x27;s a recurring thing where I run into a person with a very &quot;spicy&quot; potpourri type odor. Happens in elevators and other confined spaces, and the odor is really pungent. Seems to span cultures... sometimes an old white lady, other times a young Indian male, other times just random people. WTF is this smell? Somewhat like cloves, but worse and more nauseating.

What kind of impact to greenhouse gasses? I&#x27;m guessing no where near that of cars. Probably some aerosol propellent but no CFCs anymore.

And smell just as bad!<p>Seriously how do people douse themselves in these things that so nakedly smell like chemicals and alcohol?<p>So many otherwise beautiful people have had their impressions ruined because they smelt like a bar crawl that finished up in a perfumery.

Regarding deodorant, has anyone tried AO <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shop.motherdirt.com&#x2F;product&#x2F;ao-mist-2&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shop.motherdirt.com&#x2F;product&#x2F;ao-mist-2&#x2F;</a>

yet another reason to trust dr. bronner...<p>... on &quot;evidence-based&quot; (cf. CDC) v heuristic reasoning: certain aftershaves and similar make me gag.<p>knowing it&#x27;s because of petrol is just the evidence i need to become self-righteous about it :D

Perfumes and vapor from most petrol based solvents really get to me. It took me until I was around 30 years old to really get a handle on that but doing so made a huge difference in my quality of life.<p>Wasn&#x27;t easy on my wife and kids though. They all thought I was a major grump because I became so adamant about not using hairsprays, perfumes, nail polish and polish remover, in our house but that stuff makes me feel like crap and gives me pounding headaches. Makes me feel like a bug sprayed with &quot;Raid&quot; (which is another thing I banned in our house).<p>As a teen, I started thinking I must have some kind of psychosomatic issues because I&#x27;d get to feeling like crap at school, work, church, family get togethers, and dates with girls, etc.<p>That was reinforced when I noticed that when I did feel like crap if I went outdoors and spent a day a walking in a park, which I really loved to do, I would feel great afterwards. That almost convinced me I was making myself sick when I &quot;had to do&quot; something I didn&#x27;t really want to do, but I could never nail that theory down because it wasn&#x27;t consistent enough.<p>Finally, someone mentioned I might be &quot;chemically sensitive&quot;. I had vaguely heard of that but never considered I might be. They inspired me to start paying closer attention to things like perfumes, and anything scented like candles, detergents, soaps, shampoos, and paints and solvents. When I did I soon realized I was being bombarded with them. They were everywhere. At home, at work, at Shopping Malls and stores, and anywhere people were gathered, and those were all connected to me feeling like crap.<p>So I started avoiding them and getting rid of them in my life but it wasn&#x27;t easy. I had to be vigilant about it. My wife and kids would sneak stuff in and while I couldn&#x27;t always smell it, I would get to feeling like crap and then go on a mission to find the source, and I always found it and got rid of it and started feeling better right away.<p>I&#x27;ve been doing that now for almost 30 years and have felt great (normal) since. And over those years I&#x27;ve realized I can tolerate short durations of exposure better now. I suspect because I don&#x27;t have much in my system to begin with, and I generally avoid places (and people) that are using perfumes and scents. I&#x27;ve even been able to pinpoint some scents that really smack me down. Something in that &quot;Axe Body Scent&quot; is one of them I get away from as fast as I can. Whatever it is, it is used in a lot of products and I can detect it like a hound dog now.<p>What&#x27;s really interesting to me is now that my kids are adults none of them use that stuff anymore because they found it craps them out too. Same with my wife. She can&#x27;t be exposed to perfumes for very long now without realizing they crap her out too.<p>I do wonder if others have experienced this. It&#x27;s not something I hear about much.

I think those saying &quot;but you&#x27;re gonna stink if you don&#x27;t use soap&#x2F;deodorant!&quot; in these threads should keep in mind that BO offensiveness is definitely something that varies from person to person based on genetic factors. So it&#x27;s quite possible that some of these people saying they don&#x27;t use deodorants or soaps do <i>not</i> offend those around them, and I&#x27;m willing to take them at their word.<p>Me, I can be one of the stinky ones, so I will continue to foul up the earth with my soap bar and deodorant stick for your sake as well as my own.

Lemon juice works as well as deodorants. A couple of drops under the arms, and it works all day. The bacteria that cause the odor doesn&#x27;t grow in the acidic environment.<p>Lemon juice is not an antiperspirant, though. Just a deodorant.<p>A bottle of concentrated lemon juice will last a very long time.