In a study spearheaded by the Environmental Working Group, researchers in the United States have found 287 chemicals in the cord blood of newborns. The chemicals were traced to substances clothe manufacturers uses to add scent to their products.

According to evident accrued by researchers, the babies were essentially born pre-polluted before ever consuming a single manufactured product. In 1986 California voters approved an initiative best known as “Proposition 65,” requiring the state to publish a list of chemicals known to cause cancer or birth defects.

Since it began, it includes nearly 800 chemicals, and manufacturers are required to notify consumers when these chemicals are included in their products. According to the American Cancer Society, the risk of developing cancer was 40 per cent in men and nearly 37 per cent in women as of 2014. Their global cancer facts and figures suggest this number will grow to 50 per cent by 2030.

In the documentary, Jon Whelan, a single dad after his wife died from breast cancer, reveals that the American Chemistry Council spent $121,000 per congressman to assist election campaigns.

The influence pays dividends since it requires legislative action to alter the current status where manufacturers release chemicals under an honour system requiring proof chemicals are safe for consumer use prior to distribution.

Currently, the US does not use precautionary principles, but rather acts under the assumption chemicals are “innocent until proven guilty.” The opposite is true in Europe, where if a chemical is suspected dangerous, it’s phased out.

However, proving guilt is nearly impossible in the short term as these chemicals often accumulate over years in your body before the effects are noticeable. This works to the advantage of the industry. For example, one of the world’s most popular chemical weed killers, Roundup, made by Monsanto (now Bayer) has been on the market since 1974.

After 45 years on the market, Monsanto was ordered to pay $289 million when a jury found Dwayne Johnson’s non-Hodgkin lymphoma was at least partly triggered by glyphosate in Roundup, to which he was exposed as a school groundskeeper.

The judge upheld the guilty verdict but later reduced the damages to $78 million. After the verdict, the presiding judge, Suzanne Ramos Bolanos, commented the company “acted with malice, oppression or fraud and should be punished for its conduct.”

In the past, Monsanto had sued California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment for adding glyphosate to their Proposition 65 list of cancer-causing chemicals and lost.

In the process of filming the documentary, Whelan did not receive a response to a question he posed to manufacturers: “What are the consumer advantages of buying products with hidden chemicals that cause cancer and birth defects?”

He believes a safe compromise is transparency, allowing consumers to decide what exposure they will endure. It isn’t only the chemicals in the products you purchase to which you are exposed. Second-hand fragrance contamination is a public health concern as 30.5% of the general population find smells irritating and another 19 per cent experience adverse health effects from air fresheners.

Thirty years ago the issue was second-hand smoke, but today scents from perfumes, air fresheners, scented laundry products and numerous other products on which fragrances are used are triggering health issues.

Reactions to these fragrances created in the laboratory may include: weakness, hay fever symptoms, dizziness, confusion, headaches, muscle aches/spasms, heart palpitations, mucosal symptoms in eyes and airways. gastrointestinal problems, vomiting, nausea, asthma attacks, neurological problems, seizures, contact dermatitis, breathing and respiratory difficulties.

The chemical cocktails in fragrances are often toxic as they are derived from petroleum and coal tar, and not made from the essential oils of flowers or sweet-smelling plants. As soon as you smell an air freshener, scented candle or laundry detergent, you have already absorbed the chemicals into your body as they enter through your lungs.

Even when you no longer smell the fragrance, you’re still absorbing the chemicals through your clothing, bedding and towels. Some synthetic fabrics have unpleasant odours, prompting manufacturers to cover them with masking fragrances.

Second-hand fragrances are difficult to avoid as most public places use some type of air freshener and make available scented hand soaps. Although the number could potentially be falling, 85 per cent of women wear perfume and over 60 per cent of men use cologne and aftershave. A small number of schools, colleges, businesses and hospitals have enacted fragrance-free policies.

Are you releasing volatile organic compounds into the air? The scent and chemicals manufacturers add to your clothing aren’t the only ways toxic chemicals are released. Since fragrances are essentially an unregulated market and manufacturers are working on the “honour system,” it’s not possible to find information on product labels about exposure to dangerous chemicals. Fabric softeners and dryer sheets are one such fragrance-laden product.

One University of Washington scientist, Anne Steinemann, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and public affairs, has done a large amount of research into what chemicals are released by laundry products, air fresheners, cleaners, lotions and other fragranced consumer products.

One study focused on chemicals emitted through laundry vents during typical use of fragranced products and was published in Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health in 2011. Steinemann found the following dryer vent emissions from 25 of the most common brands of scented laundry products:

More than 600 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were emitted, and only two of those compounds were listed on any associated material safety data sheet. None of the chemicals were listed on any of the 25 product labels. Two of the VOCs (acetaldehyde and benzene) are considered by the US Environmental Protection Agency to be carcinogenic and unsafe at any exposure level.

Seven of the VOCs are classified as “hazardous air pollutants.” The highest concentration of emitted VOCs was acetaldehyde, acetone and ethanol. Only 25 per cent of the VOCs were classified as toxic or hazardous under federal laws. Virtually none of the VOCs detected in her study were listed on product labels or the product’s material data safety sheet.

Instead, labels listed only general categories, such as “biodegradable surfactants,” “softeners” or “perfume.” Even more disturbing, the “greener” products were just as bad, if not worse, than the conventional products.

• The Defender report / By Mercola