Dark History - 66: Death By Christmas Candle: What’s Really in Your Favorite Products?

Episode Date: December 14, 2022

Welcome to the Dark History podcast. Tis the season. And by season I mean scented candle season. Nothing makes you feel more warm and cuddly than an apple cinnamon candle and a blanket. But what if I told you by burning that candle you’re doing the same amount of damage as just inhaling straight exhaust fumes. Seriously. In today’s episode we go into the dark seedy history of fragrance. And how because of them, something as simple as a scented candle is deadly.  Episode Advertisers Include: Apostrophe and Ship Station.  Learn more during the podcast about special offers!

Hi friends, I hope you're having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to my study or, you know, just to my podcast, Dark History. Now this is a chance to tell a story like it is and honestly, you share the history of stuff you would never really think about, you know? I'm a curious cat, I wanna know everything. I love learning. So all you have to do is sit back, relax,

and just let me ramble, because you're gonna learn something new, and isn't that fun? Let me start off with this, because I learned to random fact the other day, and I just need to share it, because I don't know where it belongs. Okay, so,

crows, crows, yes, crows. If you piss them off, they remember you pissing them off and they'll purposely like mess with you. And if they die, the crows, let's say they have a kid, okay, let's do it. This is what I do at night. Let's say that crow has a kid, okay, and that crow dies.

He hates you, remember? If that crow dies, there's something called chemical memory that kind of like passes on, and then the new crow remembers that they hate you. This is actual factual information. Crows, if they hate you, they will mess with you, and they also never forget. And that's your fun fact for the day.

Ha ha ha. Great. I just had to tell you because I was like, what, that's it. Okay, let's get into today's story because today's story is gonna ruin your day. So you know, like when you go to Target or Starbucks or wherever you go, you're having a good day,

you're in a good mood. And you're like, I'm gonna treat myself, right? So you pick up your little iced macca frappa, like a, you know, and then you walk over to the home section because they always got something. Oh, right, something cute, something with a little painting on it and you're like, ah, holidays. So you walk it around, you walk it around.

And if you're in California, something that you may come across that we all kind of ignore is a sign. There's a little white sign that says you are currently being exposed to cancer causing chemicals. It's very vague. And honestly, you're like, wait a minute, are we not going to talk about this? What do you mean? Like, is there, should I leave? Is it too late? Is there cancer everywhere? Do I have, like, huh? It's so confusing. If you go to Starbucks, you see it.

If you go to Home Goods, Target, blah. Anywhere you go, they have these, I think they're called P65 warnings, California law. That's kinda scary, but then it gets scarier. Because guess how many chemicals are on the list? You're probably thinking like five, 10, 15, I don't know. Bitch. There's over 900 chemicals on this list.

And all of these businesses, I mean, all they have to do is just tell you, they don't have to remove them, which is an interesting law, right? So this isn't just a California thing. There's a California law that tells us like we have to have a sign warning us. But everywhere else, you guys got chemicals too. They're just not telling you. And this isn't like some weird conspiracy. No, this is like some real shit and it's very concerning. Okay, look, and we need to talk about it because question number one, what are we supposed to do? Now, not go to charge it or Starbucks. I feel like that's doable, but you know, let's be realistic here, convenience.

But it doesn't end there because once you start noticing these signs and you start paying attention to it, they're literally everywhere. So what am I supposed to do is burn down my house? Because they're in your house right now, they're all over you. So naturally, I got to researching. And I found out that these chemicals are most often found in an ingredient called fragrance. If you're like me, the first thing you think about when you hear the word saturating it, right? Because it felt like even if you couldn't afford the fancier things in life,

you could always get your hands on some perfume. And it made you feel good, you smelled good. And most perfume is in like these really fancy bottles, they feel so looks. And unfortunately, there's a shit ton of chemicals in them. You can't tell me that pink sugar perfume isn't a bunch of chemicals to make you smell like cotton candy, right?

So like, how did we get here? How did we get here? Well, one of the first known perfumers from 1200 BCE was a woman named Toput. She lived in ancient Babylon and she worked for a king as like a professional perfumer, which was a legit title back then, like this was their specialty. And she was very valued in the king's court because of her skills in making perfume.

She made people smell like bomb. Kings and Queens they loved her. She had a great reputation and she was used by many. Fragrance would end up making its way into religious ceremonies and just gave people more attention and more confidence. And it stayed like that for many centuries. I mean, back then perfume wasn't just about smelling good

or covering up the fact that you haven't washed your hair in like days, right? It was a very necessary but sacred thing. Palaces would even have these giant rooms dedicated to documenting all the perfumed sense they used, they made, I mean, it was detailed information. And then of course, smelling good back then also meant that you were of higher status, of course, right?

The, yeah, they had to separate themselves from the poor. And most importantly, it meant your disease free. Like if you smell good, you were clean. And if not, you were diseased and disgusting. Boo. Another use for perfume was actually medicine. And we know from our episode The Season on Mommies, perfumed oils were used for embalming purposes, and also were a big part of religious ceremonies to the gods. Praise God, you know? So until the 1930s, perfumes were strictly made from the things around us by mother nature herself. I'm talking, you know, the flowers, the spices,

the trees, go outside, capture it in a bottle. And perfumers would extract these sense by mixing them up different ways with natural oils and waxes, which would then preserve them. And also, fun fact, did you know that if you smell a very fragrant flower like a rose when it's being bloomed, that means you're smelling sex. Yeah, nasty. So the flower is, I guess, corneus is the best way to say it because when it's ready to be

pollinated by a bee, it's super fragrant. So it's like trying to lure in the bee, like smell me, be, smell me. So I don't know, it's just kind of like no wonder we're attracted to flowers. Yeah, what's always, like the number one perfume you smell out there. It's always a floral scent. Like, we still try to do this today with the florals.

I can't stand it. I personally like the musky sense. I like to smell like I got lost in the woods and like a lumberjack man like saved me and like we rolled around in the leads and stuff, you know. But then I learned that musky sense actually, it comes from a freaking deer, more specifically, quote, a hairy pouch just the size of golf ball in front of the penis. That's how they, they like get the scent from that. So I like deer balls, I guess. So I guess that hair pouch is actually a gland inside the deer.

And on its own, it smells pretty gross, but people say it has a sharp urine scent. And if you combine it with ethanol over a few months or sometimes years, it starts to smell pretty okay. Pretty decent, I guess. It's almost like an afro-diz-yak. Like, oh yeah, you like that? You like that deer-dick smell?

Oh, I like it. I think it smells good. Anyway, now we've been into deer-dick since the sixth century. Greek explorers brought it to Greece from India, but the Arabic people were the ones who actually perfected it. Researchers know the path it has taken to Greece from India, but the Arabic people were the ones who actually perfected it. Researchers know the path it has taken to get to us, but no history book remembers who the very

first person was to figure out that the ballsack smelled good. Like that, you know, I want to know about that guy. What was that guy doing? I got some questions, but no answers. Millions of people into deer balls. We love that. Okay, I just wanted to make myself comfortable if you're watching this over on YouTube. This chair's not comfortable. Okay, anyways, back to the story. So deer balls, deer balls are just the tip of this stinkberg.

Another famous fragrance is called Sivit. and this is used in perfume because like in small amounts it makes the fragrance smell velvety and radiant which I know I was like velvety. What does velvety smell like? And radiant I don't know but that's what they claim. It also is considered by millions to be an afro-diz-yak, meaning, you know, it gets you in the mood for the rockin' and rollin'.

One day I'm gonna figure out what the hell I'm doing over here in this chair. So if you wanna get some of this civet, you need to find a special kind of cat-like animal. You gotta trap it in the cage, and then once a civet cat is in the cage, taunt the animal with a stick, so it bites. Then, I guess they would open the back of the cage and then one specific cat is in the cage, taunt the animal with a stick. So it bites. Then I guess they would open the back

of the cage and you can collect the civet oil from a gland on the outside of its body near its taint. I know it's always in the taint. But back then a lot of hunters, they would and they would just kill the animals and harvest the oil so they didn't have to fight them.

Many of the hunters did this. It was just easier. And I'm just saying that lightly because it's like nowadays, it's inappropriate, but back then it was like they're normal. And that's how they figured it out. I don't know again how they were getting this taint smell. Like how they figured it out. That's the missing piece I wanted answers to, but we couldn't get any answers.

Who was sniffing balls? Most of you probably know Chanel number five of very iconic fragrance. Yes, most likely there's cat taint in that. Now there are a bunch of other gross example, animal stuff and fragrances, but I think we get the point. But it wasn't until the mid 1900s in America, when fragrance went from being this luxury, beautiful,

I don't know, it was like such a powerful thing. And then it just turned into this dangerous fucking, sponsoring this episode. So there's a lot of advancements in the world of chemicals. People figured out how to make perfume that would last way longer on the skin than the actual natural stuff. And the last way longer on the skin than the actual natural stuff. And the longer it lasts on the skin, you know, the longer you'd be smelling,

smelling sexy. And the other benefit to that, you don't have to spend as much money because a bottle of this stuff is just going to last you a lot longer. So instead of relying on animal juices, something called synthetic fragrances became available to the market. Now these chemicals are the copycats of the real thing from Mother Nature. So you don't have to be rubbing your wrist with a lavender nub all day. You could just spritz and smell like fresh lavender all day long.

But we all know that for every nice little convenience, there's always a price to pay. You want your laundry to smell like spring metal, whatever the hell that is.'s always a price to pay, you know, you want your laundry to smell like spring meadow, whatever the hell that is, you know, there's a price for that, and you're probably thinking, well, what's the price? Not just money. We're paying with our hormones. Not dollars. What? I know you might ask, how? Well, let me explain. That's why you're here, aren't you? So a lot of people, when they hear the word hormones, they tend to think like, I don't know, like when you're a, like an immature boy, like, oh, you're just on your period, your

hormones are at a control, you know? And it's like, that's actually, no, that ain't it. A lot of people have no idea that hormones are very important for adults as well, just functioning with your everyday hormones. They call the shots by telling our body what to do and when to do it. It hormones affect everything from blood pressure, growth and fertility, your sex drive, your metabolism, and even your sleep. Also, for women, like when to ovulate or for men when to produce sperm, when to grow your hair and where to grow it. They factor into our temperament and our skin. But even though this is

science, a lot of men still think that hormones are just like a woman thing, but na na, it's an every, it's an every one thing. I mean, when you really think about it, hormones don't get enough credit, they're keeping everything going baby, okay? But here's the thing, our bodies can't tell the difference between a naturally occurring hormone and something synthetic that was created in a lab like chemical perfume.

Your skin is your largest organ, so if you're putting chemical perfume on your skin, guess what? It gets sucked right in and goes right into your bloodstream and that my friends can cause total chaos. Particularly on our endocrine system. The endocrine system is the part of your body responsible for regulating your thyroid, your adrenal glands, your pancreas, and your sex organs, like your balls and ovaries. And all of these can be affected by chemicals called EDCs or endocrine disrupting chemicals.

Let me tell you this, you do not want your endocrine system disrupted. So I'm going to call these chemicals EDCs, okay? So when I say EDC, just remember, it's a bad chemical that we do not want. Now, EDC is just an umbrella term for all of those synthetic chemicals that are typically in perfume. So these EDCs, what they do is they throw everything out of whack by interfering with both your hormone production and the release of hormones in your body. This can lead to even bigger issues, like cancer, respiratory issues, weakened immune systems, endometriosis and fertility,

just, and that's just a few. And this has proven fact, like this isn't some kind of like, you know, a mystery, like they know what it does. So yeah, even small amounts of EDCs can have lasting impacts, especially when you're exposed to them constantly. Now a perfect example of this was actually found in nature.

There's a doctor, same as Dr. Lewis Gillette. I know, I was thinking the raisers too. He's not related, I guess. Anyways, Dr. Lewis Gillette, who's a reproductive endocrinologist, was studying the reproductive rate of alligators at Lake Apapka in Florida. My tongue is getting tied to,

so over time, this doctor, he's noticing that only 10% of the alligators' eggs were being fertilized and hatched. Now, usually for healthy alligators, this number is a lot closer to about 90%. So I mean, that's a big drop, right? So Dr. Lewis is scratching his head. He's like, what the hell's going on here?

But then he discovered the reason. You see, there was a nearby fragrance factory and they were dumping their chemical waste into the lake and all of the EDCs and chemicals are going into the lake with it, right? In the waters. So the alligators are just marinating in it, just cooking in it.

And over time, this had resulted in the alligators only having 10% of the alligator babies they should. Yeah, sad for them, but I mean, shut up, Bailey. I was gonna say we can probably do without alligators, but you know, that's rude. I don't want to upset the alligator community and have them come after me. I don't need that. I love you alligators. Just do your thing. I respect you. But this galette guy, he has a light bulb moment, and he is like, if this is happening to the alligators, I wonder if this is happening to people, right? What if the same logic applies to humans? And this seemed to make a lot of sense

because a study had just come out showing that from the year 1973 to 2011, the average male sperm count had fallen by more than 50%. 50%... Ah, now, I'm no scientist, but if it continues at that rate, I guess it would like make sense that by the year 2043, there will be no sperm crickets. I know. And then I was thinking again, like, man, is that a bad thing, You know, world's ending anyways, whatever. But that's not what we're talking about right now.

We're talking about sperm. And the sperm counts over the years, they just keep getting lower and lower and nobody's putting these pieces together except for this Dr. Jaleck guy. The scientific community finally realized the serious threat of human exposure to EDCs and they realized there are two big EDCs that people should really look out for.

I mean, they're all bad. Fallates and BPAs. These are the two big daddies. These EDCs are linked to diabetes, liver disease, early miscarriages, and can even impact brain development in children. And some researchers believe exposure to this stuff when you're really young can lead to all sorts of disease that don't or won't show up until way later in life. Where's so? Now a thalate is the chemical that makes a perfume last all day. So we love that, right? Because I like small and good all day. So if you've ever walked into an elevator and it's empty, but then like, you could still smell someone's cologne. Yeah, you're breathing in that chemical, foul-ate.

I feel so bad for the people who work at Bath & Body Works. If you work there, you need to run, baby. Run, okay. Don't come after me, Bath & Body Works. BPAs you've probably heard of, especially if you're in the market for like a reusable water bottle or you're shopping for really anything that's plastic. Most of it, especially if you're in the market for like a reusable water bottle or you're shopping for really anything that's plastic.

Most of it, especially in California, now has to be BPA-free, so that's nice, but what about everybody else? Yeah. Yeah. But there are more than 17,000 different perfumes and fragrances made out of 4,000 synthetic chemicals, and the majority of them contain thalates. Now, here's the tricky thing.

You will not see thalates on an ingredient label because companies are not required to list them. What? What? Nothing is safe? No, nothing is safe. Companies don't wanna tell you how they make their trademark scent. It's considered a trade secret.

So if you come out with like some kind of fragrance, you don't have to say what it is because it's a trade secret. And you don't wanna give it away because everybody will have your scent and you're saying, your scent's a trade secret. You know, do you get what I'm saying? You get what I'm saying on your smart. Thank you. So a lot of times times you'll just see the word fragrance

or perfume on an ingredient list. And that word alone can hide hundreds of chemicals. It's one big fat loophole. It's disturbing. It's terrifying. It's sad. And America just loves a loophole, right? There are no requirements on any level,

state or federal that say fragrance ingredients need to be disclosed. And there is no law or organization that says they need to prove like what they're putting in this stuff is actually safe. What I'm getting at or what I learned is that no one, nobody, is regulating the fragrance industry. Nobody, that sentence alone should be kind of concerning

to us, right? It's just the Wild West out here. I mean, they literally could be putting anything in there. We don't know, and we'll never know. I mean, let's just go back to the fucking deer taints and stuff. Who's with me? At least it was safe. Now let's get back to the story. So guys, this next part pains me to tell you. But, you know, I gotta say it. I know you love your candles.

I know, I love them too. I really do. Especially those fall inspired ones. Let me tell you, Mahogany Teakwood smells like a sexy man. I love that one. Bath and body works. And also winter. Oh, I love winter. That one. Yeah, look, listen, they're killing us. They're bad for us. It's real bad. Okay. Now, there might be a reason why you're getting those headaches. Okay. At least I do. I get really sick from candles.

And it always had me thinking like how, how come nobody else gets sick from them? Is it just me? I can only light them for a short amount of time. And then I have to blow them out because I get a freaking migraine. So I just thought like, uh, I don't have that white girl gene. I'm missing half of it or something, you know? Turns out, if you googled this information, guess what? When you burn a candle, you're creating something called indoor air pollution.

This can be toxic, especially if the candle wax is made out of petroleum, like, paraffin waxes. And the chemicals you're inhaling are the same ones that are found in, in like, the fuel exhaust. So you're just hulking your, it's like, what's that movie, mid-summer? Remember the fuel exhaust to the face? Oh, fuck. Yeah, it's like that.

Anyway, so this, these chemicals here inhaling, they can cause allergies, asthma attacks, skin problems, headaches, all that. Yeah, I know, we need a minute. We need a minute of silence for all the candles. This is so disappointing, right? I know. But like I stink, my house stinks.

I don't want to stink. Bring in the deers, I don't know. Look, there's this guy, his name's Andrew Sled. He's a doctor, a really smart doctor, who specializes in environmental toxicology. He said that burning a candle for one hour is like smoking a single cigarette. I know, and my follow-up question was like, what kind though? Are we talking American spirits, marble reds, camels? Like, come on. Mr. Sled, gotta be a little bit more specific. How witch-kind.

I mean, yes, bad, right? Bad. You might as well smoke. I don't think you should, but, you know, okay. Anyways, and it's not only harming you, it's also harming your pets. Mm-hmm, I have some bad news. When you burn a scented candle, you are potentially putting your pets at risk.

They're inhaling the chemicals just like you are. And when they breathe in certain types of scented candles or perfumes, it can actually cause them to have coughing, give them stomach problems, skin problems. It's so sad and they can't tell you, you know? Poor babies. Now, some companies are actively trying to get rid of EDCs in their products.

I mean, so they say, but as we know, there's no law saying that they absolutely have to. And some companies are doing something extremely shady and putting on their labels, that late free, without actually removing any of the thalates. Go ahead, try and take a guess who was doing that nonsense. Oh wait. If you guessed Johnson and Johnson, Gold star Henry, I mean, this shouldn't surprise any of us after the things we learned about them, huh? So yeah, Johnson and Johnson, they rolled out a line of baby products that claimed to be thalate-free.

But in one study, when a lab tested 17 of these Johnson and Johnson products, all 17 of them came back positive for Thalates. Well, fuck me in the ass and call me Romeo. But it's not just Johnson and Johnson, because 72 different body products were also tested for Thalates in that same study. And most of them freaking had the chemical, despite being advertised as thalate free.

Lord help us. Now, I know there's a, there's a, there's a lot of new words and info being tossed around here. I'm tossing your salad. So if you're like me, you're probably wondering like, okay, that's great, but how does this really affect us? Like if I'm someone who doesn't want to have kids, are these hormone destroying chemicals really that bad kind of doing me a favor?

Unfortunately, the answer is yes, it is Barbara, get it together. A lot of this information is still pretty new, so we won't know for a while what the full impact of EDCs are on our health, but so far they've been linked to many, many things. Asma, ADHD, obesity, diabetes, brain issues, behavioral issues, autism, just cancer, fuck all of it. Okay, so we're't like the test dummies here, Jesus. We're gonna find out, buckle in. But the big smoking gun here is that medical research from the National Institute of Health links EDCs

directly with cases of breast cancer. I can't make assumptions here because what the fuck do I know? But there's a study that came out saying that one in eight women will develop breast cancer, and it's like, you know, why? It's scary. And like, there's no way, like we talked about in the Johnson & Johnson episode. There's no way to really track like where your, the cancer came from.

You know, so it's like, fuck. Stories about cancer spreading hit really close to home for a woman named Emily Holden. So this woman, Emily, she's an environmental reporter living in Washington, DC. And because of her job, she's been in the thick of this toxic chemical crisis that we've been talking about. So she's been meeting people, interviewing them, trying to talk with big companies, just getting involved,

and she noticed more and more experts sounding the alarm about how Americans are exposed to toxic chemicals. I mean, just by living our lives and going about our day, and then one day Emily was like, you know, wait a minute, what about me? And where I come from. And this got her thinking about her and her own family. Emily grew up in the southern part of Louisiana and it wasn't all like Mardi Gras and titties down there. Okay. Emily grew up in an

area known by the locals. So it was known by the locals as Cancer Ali. Yeah. Yeah. It's a whole region of the country where people were getting sick from cancer and like it was just kind of another normal part of their lives. And at one point Emily got together with her parents to count the number of people in her family that had died from cancer. They got to the number eight and just stopped counting. So Emily began looking around like where she grew up, what's going on. Not far from her hometown where all

those family members got cancer, there are a ton of companies that own factories and industrial sites. And one of them, they're known as a petrochemical company, which is essentially a fancy way to say oil company. Now I hear you, I hear you, you're yelling at me, you're like, this is too much, whatever. You know, I know, I get it. Why are we talking about oil companies now? But the reason I bring oil companies up is because a ton of thalates come from oil companies. And when they make their products,

their factories blast polluted air into the nearby neighborhoods. Because of the toxic air, one town near New Orleans has a cancer rate that is 50 times the national average. 50 times just this this town. Are we not concerned? Why are we not doing anything? Like, it's so I'm sure you can wonder why Emily is concerned. And because of this, she goes to a hospital in New York to get some test done on herself to find out

like what's inside of me, what kind of chemicals are living in my body. So the doctors, they gave her a silicone wristband. She ended up wearing this for five days and then when she went back to the doctors, I don't know how this wristband works, but look, they were able to see what kind of chemicals were in her, in her body, and the director of the hospital,

you know, goes over all of the results with her, and they found 12 toxic chemicals were in her body. And she's like, dude, I don't even do anything. I just like live, you know, She's not living like this wildlife. But what they were able to track was that there was a bunch of ballots, some pesticides, and even flame retardants. I don't even get my start. We could do a whole episode on flame retardants.

It's all in your furniture. All the shit you get from home goods, it's in your baby clothes, it's in everything. So look, she's like, oh great, my body's not even mine, it's all owned by chemicals. And then they gave her urine tests, and they were even more chemicals traced in her urine. This would make sense, kind of,

if Emily was walking through a war zone, or maybe she worked at like a chemical plant or you know, like, right? Like that would kind of make sense, but this was just a normal woman living her normal life doing normal everyday basic things. Like waking up, going to work, going to the grocery store, going home, making dinner.

You know, like, things that we do, right? So I got me thinking, like, oh my god, I don't want to know what's in my body. Oh, do you know how much fragrance is in makeup? Oh, oh, what am I going to do? I bring up Emily's story because it's really our story too. Because the CDC found that 93% of human beings have chemicals like this in our bodies. 93%. That's like all of us, Gaina.

I wanna know about the ones who don't have it. Where are they at? Mermaids? There's this incredible documentary you can watch on HBO right now. It's called Not So Pretty. I would suggest watching every episode, but I'm referring to the skin episode right now. And in that documentary, a woman goes to see a doctor

to find out what her toxic levels are. When it comes to the BPAs found in plastic that I mentioned earlier, a normal level in the body is considered a three. Hers was 23. Well, hot, diggy-dog, right? And when it came to Thalates, girl, Jesus take the wheel because the recommended level in the body is less than

like 300 or something like that. And hers was 1,192. Okay. It's kind of like, what do you do with that information? and hers was 1,192. Okay. It's kind of like, what do you do with that information? You're like, okay, thanks. So fuck me, right? Okay, thanks, Doc. You know, like, what are you supposed to do with that?

And again, this was a normal quote, quote, healthy person just living their life. And then it gets even more scary. There was a recent study that says that relates in everyday products are believed to be linked to over 90,000 premature deaths per year. So what are we going to do? We need to plan, right? Because of all the risks associated with being exposed to these toxic chemicals, I mean, it's no wonder that a ton of doctors and researchers believe that there is no such thing as a normal level of these toxins,

which surely makes sense, but they're, you know, they're trying to convince us that it's totally normal. And then even worse, these companies say that these toxins are not harmful at all because they've tested it themselves. And, you know, who's gonna give themselves an F when they're grading their own test? Also, they test these chemicals one at a time

in very low amounts, which is not the way that we humans are exposed to them. We're exposed to like a cocktail of chemicals. Think about it like this. Maybe you're at home enjoying a glass of wine or cider for my gluten free friends. You're about to put on the Wizard of Oz for the 9,000th time, Bailey again. Yes. And then your friend calls and is like, Hey, do you want to meet me at a

cool bar for a drink? So you go there and then you're like, I'm going to have a fun casoda. And then the night goes on and things get a little cray. You end up in a bush, you're taking shots, stumbling home. And you're like, I want a cheesy cordita. Right? And then you feel sick because you've got like five kinds of alcohol in you. Yeah, it's like that. It's like that. That's what the chemicals are doing. Most of us just aren't exposed to like one glass of wine, where we're getting swasted, slashed on chemical overload every single day, like everything we put in our bodies.

And also everything we are putting on our bodies, deodorants, lotions, shaving creams, body washes, laundry detergent, hair, like everything has fragrance in it. Deodorant, don't even give me a sorry on deodorant, cause like there's two different types of deodorants, anti-pars sprints, and then deodorant. I never knew the difference, but I'm gonna tell you what the difference is.

Anti-pars sprint means that there's a chemical involved that actually blocks your sweat glands and essentially stops the sweat from coming out of your body. Which sounds great, right? It's not great because what you're actually doing is disrupting the body's natural process of like getting rid of bacteria purging, you know? So anti-perspirants get a bad rap for having aluminum and other potentially cancer-causing ingredients in them, but the jury is still kind of out on how bad that stuff is for us.

And I mean, lots of people have claimed that there is a connection between antiperspirants and breast cancer, but there's no proper research or anything being funded to determine if this is true or not because they don't want to know because then they have to change everything and that costs money. But we need to demand better.

We really do. This is concerning. There was this huge recall last year that CNN reported on where a known cancer-causing chemical was found in dozens of batches of deodorant body sprays from 30 different brands. The chemical is not supposed to be used at all, according to the FDA, because even trace amounts create unacceptable toxicity. But it's not just in deodorant. These chemicals can be found in other places like active volcanoes and forest fires, which is so random, right? But I mean, think about it. That's not healthy to breathe in. Forest fire.

No, not good for you. And on top of that, the majority of theodorants and antiperspirants contain all the sketchy things that we've talked about earlier. Fragrance, thalates, blah, blah, blah, blah. They're just trying to get rid of us. They hate us. I feel like this has been a conversation that's been going on for quite some time,

the whole deodorant debate. But have you tried natural deodorants? Because look, they're not that great, right? I have tried. I have tried so hard, but they use stink. You stink. What do we do? Rub leaves in our, in our, I don't know what to do, you know?

I don't have an answer for you. I still use deodorant knowing damn well that it's probably killing my tit. I don't know. So I wish I had like an answer for you, but that's what we need more of. So let's get the conversation going, you know. So Candle's perfume, deodorant, makeup,

shaving cream, body cream, bling, bling, bling, bling, bling, bling, the list goes on. I wish I could say, you know, the list was short, but it's not. We humans got very carried away with fragrance and yeah, it, just everything. Thalins can be found in bitch. The list look, tampons, lotions, scented trashback shampoo, cosmetic products, nail polish,

body wash, baby soap, cleaning products, face paint, medical devices, shower curtains, toys, hairspray, computers, laptops, smartphones, wallpaper, school supplies, carpets, tap water, meat, cheese, soil, sex toys. Yeah, it's in your sex toy. What do we suppose I do? And since it's literally everywhere and we know how bad it is for us, like we know it's not good for us. It can't be legal, right? No, wrong, of course not. This is America. The only state that has any type of laws around what chemicals are in fragrance is California, allegedly, and it went into effect in January of 2022. So yeah, 49 other states have got nothing requiring companies to tell the truth about what's in their products. But what advocates

say really needs to be done is getting a law passed on the federal level. I came across an organization called Earth Justice, and they're a nonprofit legal company who they pick fights with big companies and I love it. Like, you know, come on, their motto is, quote, because Earth needs a good lawyer which facts, Earth doesn't need a good lawyer. And the way that they're doing that is by essentially trying to ban the bad chemicals in everyday products. They have over 650 lawsuits happening as we speak, and over 180 lawyers fighting for us, essentially, an earth. And if you want to work for them, their website says their offices are officially like all fragrance free and like clean. So if you go for an interview, don't wear a perfume or anything. Okay, good luck. Our expert on the

episode also pointed us in the direction of a couple smaller organizations that are fighting the fragrance fight. Black women for wellness and breast cancer prevention partners are amazing places to look at if you're interested in learning more and also giving back. I would highly suggest checking out the episode notes for some links to learn more. I mean, you know, this is, I just scratched the surface with this one. There's a lot, a lot more. It's quite depressing. Anyways, I also suggest to maybe start looking at all the products in your house.

Ugh, good luck. I did this the other day. Go to the bathroom, the kitchen. You pick something up. I mean, anything up, you turn it over. You're gonna see the word fragrance. Learning nothing in your house is safe. It's so unfortunate.

One thing to do, you could switch to unscented, right? Which is great, but also start small. It could be really overwhelming, right? Super overwhelming. So like, there's apps you can download that scan products and tell you if there's, you know, bad chemicals in it. There's one called Skin Deep and detox me. They look up product rankings for toxicity and safety so you can make informed decisions. I mean, when you really think about it at the end of the day, it kind of feels like we're not, it feels like we're powerless sometimes, but brands need us more than we need them,

right? So if we all, I hate putting it back on us because I want it to be on them, you know, but if we stop buying scented garbage bags and stuff, maybe we'll start making them. I fucking doubt it. Okay. Something also crazy that kind of makes you frown is that it's not happening like in other countries like this whole fragrance situation. Just for example, almost all of Europe has a very long list of banned chemicals.

And it's about to get longer. They're in the middle of trying to expand the list to 12,000 chemicals, because they seem to kind of care, which is interesting. On our list in the USA, there are a whopping 11 banned chemicals that are not allowed in our products. So, a gay. We've got to look out for ourselves because America will always put money first and not our well-being.

I mean, have we learned nothing? Don't be silly. Anyway, sorry to put a little damper on your day because this is really depressing information, honestly. I sat like marinated on it for a long time because like, look, at the end of the day, we all die, right? I know, I'm taking a sharp left here. We all die. So it's like, try your best to eliminate the fragrance

and the chemicals where you can. And there's gonna be some things that maybe you don't want to. Like for me, I'm so sorry, but I love makeup, right? And it's just like, I know it's bad for me, but I love it. And I'll try and find like the unscented stuff where I can, or you know, so it's kind of like,

just try your best. I'm not trying to get all preachy on you, like I miss, like coming to my house and I don't have a candle lit like I do. I'm a you know being informed I think is the most important part. Just knowing that something isn't safe can either make you purchase or put it away and it's like that's all we kind of want just some honesty and transparency like hey this product might literally fucking kill you. Okay, I might pass on that candle. Good to know. Appreciate that.

It's only until these companies stop being so fucking greedy. Let's rage. We meet at midnight in front of the water fountain. See you there. Either way, we're all gonna die anyways. So see you in the underworlds. Well, everyone, thank you for learning with me today. Sorry to be such a rain cloud on a sunny day. That was kind of cute. Remember, be curious. Don't be afraid to ask

questions and to just educate yourself on ship because you deserve that. Now, I'd love to hear your guys' reactions to today's story. So make sure to use the hashtag dark history over on social media so I can follow along, see what you're saying, my binoculars. Join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday, after the podcast, airs, and while you're there, don't forget to check out murder mystery and make up, where I cover myself in fragrance on camera. I hope you have a great day today. You make good choices and I'll be talking to you next week. Goodbye. Dark History is an audio boom original.

This podcast is executive produced by Bailey Sarian, Junior McNeely from Three Arts, Kevin Grush, and Claire Turner from Made in Network. Writers, Katie Burrers, Allison Philobos, Joey Skluzo, and me, Bailey Sarian. Shot and edited by Tafadzwa, Nimmerundway, and Hannah Bacher. Research provided by the Dark History Researcher team, and I'm your host, Miss Bailey Sarian.

And scene. and seen. you