How toxic dryer vents are?

Highly toxic! Believing that cleaning laundry with conventional fragranced detergents is harmless is a mistake!

The dryer emissions are now classified as hazardous air pollutants and are known carcinogens.

Have you noticed that annoying toxic smell coming from neighbor laundry rooms?

Whenever they run their dryer and the fumes reach you walking in the street or even inside your home, they force us to shut the windows and run air purifiers even when we don’t want to.

“This is an interesting source of pollution because emissions from dryer vents are essentially unregulated and unmonitored,” says lead author Anne Steinemann, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and of public affairs at the University of Washington.

"Dryer exhaust from dryers that have been running with a dryer sheet or other type of fabric softener has shown to contain several toxic fumes such as benzyl acetate, which is a carcinogenic that is linked to pancreatic cancer.

Bensyl alcohol has been found in dryer exhaust and exposure to it will cause headache, nausea, vomiting, dizziness and a drop in blood pressure which could lead to fainting. Several chemicals that have been classified on the EPA's hazardous waste list have also been found in dryer exhaust."

 

Are scented laundry products carcinogens?

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.

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Is your neighbor responsible for intoxicating you?

You can spot immediately when someone is wearing a garment that has been treated with conventional products, its typical toxic smell is recognizable.

What is even worse is this toxic mix of chemicals we smell coming from laundry rooms when walking on a sidewalk in a residential area, in the alley, in your garden, or even inside your home if you have open windows! Preventing us to leave the windows open or spend time outdoors in our backyard!

"When the neighbor’s dryer vent blows aromas your way do you inhale deeply and enjoy the experience? Or do you cover your nose and close the windows shut? By the time you have realized that the toxic pollution has entered your living space, it might be too late. The most troublesome fact is that most of these toxins are always produced on a base of petroleum distillates, which makes them stick to fibers and surfaces around us."

That toxic smell is highly irritant not just for sensitive people but for everybody. It creates reactive symptoms that range from aches, irritability, hive, asthma etch.

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Which are the health & environmental damages of dryer vents?

"Many people who consider being affected by multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS) are simply those who have learned to connect their symptoms to health hazards from bursts of chemicals entering their environment and body. The common symptoms of chemical poisoning from dryer vents and clothing that was washed in these chemicals are headaches, irritation of mucus membranes, fatigue, loss of energy, breathing problems including asthma attacks, seasonal allergies triggered by overloaded detoxification pathways, and digestive symptoms such as inability to digest food, diarrhea or constipation." For me are headaches and hives

It is incredibly shocking that our neighbor is not aware that is putting them and us in danger by causing toxicity in our environment.

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How toxic conventional dryer sheets are?

Many of us do not realize how toxic and dangerous CONVENTIONAL DRYER SHEETS can be!

They contain unhealthy fragrances, toxic chemicals, irritants, and heavy pollutants that affect not only sensitive individuals, pregnant women, the elderly, pets, children, and wildlife, but all of us, too!

Yet, they are sold in regular grocery stores as harmless products.

Conventional dryer sheets contain toxic ingredients and chemicals that are cheap to produce, harsh on us, the planet, and the environment. They are linked with asthma and respiratory damage, skin allergies and irritations, development and reproductive toxicity, posing cancer, and environmental hazards. You can check your current detergent's toxicity rating here at EWG.org 

Those toxic fumes coming from dryer vents are an environmental hazard!

Conventional sheet pollutants contaminate the air around us, provoking respiratory effects with developmental/endocrine/reproductive effects,  general systemic/organ effects cause acute, create aquatic toxicity, pollute the environment and reach long distances through the vent of the dryer. Read here.

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How about fragrance-free laundry products?

This study shows: After switching from fragranced laundry products to fragrance-free laundry products, toxicity decreased in all samples of the laundry room air and emissions with the use of products. 

While unscented laundry products reduce the toxic fumes released to the environment, the best solution is truly natural and organic laundry products!

Fragrance-free conventional laundry detergents can contain still different spectrums of chemicals that are present in the dryer vents.

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Which are the safest products to reduce dryer vent toxicity?

Here is the breakdown  of laundry detergent and dryer sheets:

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1. Conventional Fragranced: WORSE

2. Conventional Fragrance-free laundry: BAD

3. Organic fragranced with essential oils: BETTER

4. Organic laundry fragrance-free: BEST