There Might Be a Scary Downside to Fabric Softener Sheets [View all]

[madokie]

Those wonderfully aromatic smells from your laundry may be a major source of home air pollution.

There are few scents as comforting as warm laundry pulled from the dryer, thanks to the olfactory magic of fabric softener sheets. They are simple enough products, nothing more than thin polyester sheets coated with chemicals to “soften” fabric fibers and give clothes that irresistible scent.

But have you ever wondered what's in those dryer sheets? Start by rubbing one sheet between your fingers. That waxy and slightly tacky feeling is a surfactant compound used to coat your clothes, keeping them soft. The surfactant compound is positively charged to help remove static from clothes in the dryer.

The surfactant is typically a fatty compound such as quaternary ammonium salt (which is linked to asthma), silicon oil, or stearic acid (derived from animal fat). Some dryer sheets may contain more than one surfactant. When these compounds heat up in the dryer, they liquefy and coat the clothes. In essence, your fabrics aren't any softer—they're just coated with a fatty compound to make you think they are.

Along with the surfactant — which may or may not be listed on the ingredients list — is a fragrance whose composition may also be obscured from the consumer. Those fragrances, found in sheets from brands such as Downy and Bounce, may pose health risks, as the toxins they're made with transfer to your clothes and skin and get into the air you breathe when released from dryer vent emissions, which are not regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Because the fragrances manufacturers use are trade secrets, consumers have no way of knowing what they contain. Federal laws require only that cleaning products list the ingredients that are active disinfectants or known to pose hazards.

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