Have You Used the “Scent Beads” Sold at Costco? Be Careful: They May Disrupt the Reproductive System

Want clothes that smell nice? A housework expert teaches two tricks: add “this,” and they’re fresh and antibacterial

Editor’s note:In large stores such as Costco you often see a wide range of fragrance products related to laundry: floral detergents and fabric softeners, and more recently scent beads have appeared, which people who like their clothes to smell nice can’t put down. But scent beads that can keep giving off a fragrance may contain a fixative, and long-term contact can affect the body. If you want clothes that smell nice, a housework expert suggests adding tea-tree essential oil, or using citrus peel.

Should you use scent beads or not?

Today, let’s talk about this business of fragrant clothes.

Quite a long time ago, I already talked about the relationship between laundry and fragrance. Once, when I was teaching at university, I asked the students how they chose a laundry detergent. The result: in two classes in a row, almost every student answered, “The scent! We like it fragrant — the more fragrant, the better.”

When I heard that answer, I was surprised at the time. But later I found that fragrant detergents, or products that leave clothes smelling nice after a wash, really are very popular.

Sometimes I ask trainees in return: what should clean clothes smell of? Some say the smell of things dried in the sun; some say a bit of detergent, or fabric softener.

I feel that if they were truly washed “clean,” and rinsed right through, there shouldn’t be any smell at all!

In fact a student once asked me, teacher, do you use scent beads?
I don’t, as it happens~

Let’s talk about fragrance first, because I am someone who is very sensitive to scent. Cleaning products that are too fragrant, or walking past a perfume counter in a department store, all make my nose block and make me sneeze, and I feel very uncomfortable. So in everyday life I do my best to use fewer things that contain fragrance.

And some of these products emphasise that the scent lasts, for tens of hours.To keep a fragrance for that long, a fixative may have been added.。

The toxicologist Professor Chao Mingwei has said in an interview that “a fixative is in fact a general name for many plasticisers — what we call environmental hormones. Long-term contact can disrupt the body’s reproductive system."

If you want clothes to smell nice, what should you do?

Many friends use scent beads simply to cover an odour on the clothes, so they smell nice and comfortable to wear.

I always suggest that you should first deal with the odour itself. A few suggestions follow.

1. Don’t leave clothes too long before you wash them; the longer they sit, the smellier they really get. If you can’t wash them at once,you can sprinkle some baking soda in the laundry basket to deodorise. When you’re about to wash, pat the baking soda off the clothes.

2. Before you wash,soak them first in sodium percarbonate, which can also disinfect and deodorise effectively. (I’ll introduce the use of sodium percarbonate in more detail another time.)

What if I still like a fragrant smell? Of course — I hope everyone can give up their dependence on fragrance. But I have used a few tricks that are a good way to give clothes a light, fresh hint of scent.

1.Add a little tea-tree essential oil when you wash。
Australia is the main producer of tea-tree oil, and they often use it in household cleaning. One trick is to add some tea-tree oil when you wash: it can be antibacterial and also leave a light tea-tree freshness.

2. I’ve used one interesting method.Put peeled citrus skin in a laundry bag, and tumble it with the clothes in the dryer for a while, and the clothes will have a light citrus scent.

This article is reprinted with the permission of “Chen Yingru — Sona Queen’s notebook on living.” The originalis here

What are scent beads? How do they differ from fabric softener and laundry detergent?

Scent beads (laundry fragrance beads, scent-holding pearls) are granules you put in the washer with the detergent. Their purpose is to leave a fragrance on the clothes; they are not themselves responsible for cleaning. Detergent is responsible for washing out the dirt, fabric softener makes the fabric feel softer, and scent beads only take care of the smell. The North Rhine-Westphalia consumer centre in Germany has pointed out that fragrance products that advertise a “long-lasting scent” may use microcapsules that enclose the perfume.

Do scent beads cause cancer? How far can the publicly available information go?

We have not found a specialised conclusion from the Ministry of Health and Welfare or the Ministry of Environment on “whether laundry fragrance beads cause cancer.” The publicly available information we can find is as follows:

• What people worry about is mostly the “fixative” that some fragrance products may use. Health-education content reprinted on the Ministry of Environment’s environmental-hormone information site mentions that a fixative may contain plasticisers (phthalates), and suggests not using fragrance products in a closed space for a long time.
• There are many kinds of plasticiser. Taking DEHP, which has been more widely studied, as an example, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) lists it as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” (Group 2B). A research annual from the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration also writes that there is not yet a study of DEHP’s carcinogenic risk directed at the human body, and whether it occurs in people remains to be observed. The National Environmental Toxicants Research Center at the National Health Research Institutes explains: it is still unclear whether DEHP causes cancer in humans.
• Whether a given brand of scent beads uses a plasticiser, and which kind, depends on each brand’s ingredients; they cannot be treated as all the same.
• The Hong Kong Consumer Council tested 12 laundry fragrance-bead products and found fragrance allergens in all of them; four also contained galaxolide, which may affect the environment and ecology, and people with more sensitive skin and airways were advised to use them with care.

So the publicly available information is not enough to say “scent beads cause cancer,” and not enough to say “there is no concern at all.” What is clearer is that fragrance may make sensitive people uncomfortable. If there are infants, pregnant women, or people sensitive to scent in the home, you can use less, or switch to unscented products. If you feel unwell, please consult a doctor.

How do you use scent beads, and how much? What should you watch for with a front-loading washer?

• Follow the amount on the pack; don’t double it yourself. The National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan tested fabric softeners: when a strongly scented product was used at twice the labelled amount, volatile organic compounds in the room rose more than twofold, but the perceived strength of the scent was not clearly different. The German Federal Environment Agency also reminds us that adding more detergent does not make the wash cleaner.
• Whether they go in the drum or the detergent drawer, and whether they can be used in a top-loader and a front-loader, differs by brand; please follow the instructions on the pack.
• Store them where children cannot reach them. The Hong Kong Consumer Council especially reminds people to store them properly and to prevent young children from swallowing them by mistake.

Who, and which garments, are scent beads not recommended for?

• Infants’ clothes: the laundry-detergent criteria of Germany’s Blue Angel eco-label stipulate that products designed for children under three, or for people with allergies, must not have any fragrance added.
• People with more sensitive skin or airways: the Hong Kong Consumer Council suggests using them with care; Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency also reminds people that fragrant products such as fabric softeners and detergents may cause discomfort such as headache and nausea in those around you.
• Settings where you often share a room with others (the office, the classroom): how a scent is perceived differs from person to person. Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency suggests considering the people around you when you use a fragrant product.

So what should you do about the smell of the clothes?

If you don’t want to go on covering the smell with fragrance, the problem returns to the starting point: how to deal with the clothes’ own smell. There is a difference here that is often overlooked — an odour is not dirt; it is odour molecules trapped in the fibres. A normal wash mainly removes visible soil. If the source of the smell isn’t broken down, it “comes back” as the item dries, which is why some people keep adding fragrance.

And different sources of odour need different treatments: cooking smells need something that can break down grease trapped in the fibres; mustiness involves mold — if you only cover it, it grows back as soon as the environment is damp again; sweat and body odour are mainly about sanitising and deodorising. Putting all of these through one ordinary wash usually doesn’t clean them.

In addition, what most easily traps smells at home is in factquilts, down duvets, heavy coats and curtains— large pieces that won’t fit in a washer and won’t dry through on the balcony. The surface feels dry, but the inside never dried through, and that’s where the smell comes from — which is also the real reason many people eventually turn to fragrance.

Don’t leave smelly clothes sitting too long: the longer they sit, the deeper the odour goes into the fibres, and the harder it is to treat. If you notice a smell in the rainy season or when you put things away at a change of season,send us a photo on LINE and tell us what the smell is and what the material is; we’ll choose a wash that matches the source. When we take them in we’ll look at the condition and quote first, and we start only after you agree; the process is recorded on video from start to finish for review. For charges for bedding and large items, see theprice list; for a whole batch at once, seeBag Wash。