It’s easy to find the laundry aisle of any store: just follow your nose.  The chemical miasma of the laundry aisle is ubiquitous.  It permeates the store.  When the weather is right, it will even follow you down the street, wafting from the dryer vents on houses.  It sticks to your clothes for a long, long time.  And your skin absorbs it.

Innocent-sounding names like soft ocean mist, summer orchard, mountain sunrise, and April fresh — are just disguises.  Fabric softeners really do make you sick and tired. If that isn’t enough, the stuff is expensive.  Sometimes it seems like you need a loan just to do the laundry.

A laundry list of toxic chemicals

According to a recent Ezine article, the dangerous chemicals found in fabric softeners and dryer sheets include:
• Benzyl Acetate: Linked to pancreatic cancer
• Benzyl Alcohol: Upper respiratory tract irritant
• Ethanol: Included on the EPA’s Hazardous Waste List and can cause central nervous system disorders
• Limonene: Known carcinogen
• A-Terpineol: Can cause respiratory problems, including fatal edema, and central nervous system damage
• Ethyl Acetate: Narcotic on the EPA’s Hazardous Waste List
• Camphor: Causes central nervous system disorders
• Chloroform: A neurotoxic, anesthetic, and carcinogenic substance
• Linalool: Narcotic that causes central nervous system disorders
• Pentane: Known to be harmful if inhaled

Chemical fragrance, and plenty of it

The odors of the chemicals contained in fabric softeners and dryer sheets are so pungent that that manufacturers use heavy chemical fragrances to cover them up. Fabric softeners themselves were created to disguise the unpleasant odors of synthetic fabrics when they are heated in a dryer or by our bodies. If you could remove all the added fragrance that endears people to fabric softener, the underlying chemical odor of the fabric softener combined with the odor of heated synthetic fabrics would be unbearable.

Heating it up

When you heat fabric softener chemicals by putting them in the clothes dryer, they become even more harmful. When heated, fabric softener chemicals adhere to clothes and release toxins for a very long time. The toxins are absorbed through the skin and slowly released into the air. The release of chemicals into the air not only affects the people wearing the toxin-infused clothes, it affects the people around them.

It all makes you sick and tired

According to an article on Techbanyan.com, some of the common maladies caused by fabric softener toxins include tiredness that is not cured by resting, difficulty breathing, nervousness for no known reason, difficulty concentrating and remembering, dizziness, headaches, nausea, faintness, rashes, and difficulty controlling body movements.

Simplify and save

• Like so many other things we don’t need, we buy fabric softeners and dryer sheets because manufacturers have told us over and over that we should. Here are some things you can do to minimize your exposure to these dangerous household chemicals and save money, too:
• Hang clothes to dry whenever you can.
• Cut the amount of detergent you use in half.  Half the manufacturer’s recommended amount works just as well.
• Eliminate fabric softeners and dryer sheets. Add a quarter-cup of white vinegar or baking soda to the rinse cycle. Either one acts as a freshener and fabric softener by removing detergent from the clothes, and the vinegar reduces static cling. They both help clean the washer and lengthen the life of fabrics. Alternatively, many health food stores carry soy-based fabric softeners.
• Use unscented, biodegradable laundry soap made by Seventh Generation, Bio Clean, or one of the other makers of natural cleaning products. You’ll avoid harmful chemicals, simplify your washing routine, use much less detergent per load, and save money in the long run.