Dear Good Scents:

Smells do make strong connections to our feelings and memories! Thinking about your question, I imagine smelling tangerines, balsam needles, anything baking – and wet wool socks. Ah, the winter holidays!

The healthiest way to use scents is to bring the real source of festive smells into your home. Evergreen sprays, potpourri made with citrus peels and cinnamon sticks, oranges studded with whole cloves – and soggy footwear, if you share my emotional taste in smells. Natural materials won’t scent your space indefinitely, but they’re great combinations for parties or part of the festive season – they are so pretty too.

If you want to enhance the smell of natural materials, add fragrance in the form of pure essential oils, available at health food stores and herb shops. Synthetic fragrance oils may smell nice but they can aggravate any respiratory health conditions your family or guests may have.

Scented candles are a popular way to enhance living environments, but they have their hazardous side. Most candles are scented with synthetic oils, and some have lead wicks. Burning lead is not a healthy idea, even in very small quantities. Check the ingredients on candles before you buy them, and consider using candles for their luminous quality alone.

Spray scented products, often marketed as “air fresheners” pose even more concerns. First of all, sprays don’t actually “freshen” anything – they just mask other odors. They can also introduce hazardous chemicals into your breathing space. Products of concern include sprays, solids, scented-oil items and plug-in items – which are also a highly suspect use of energy.

A 2007 study by the Natural Resources Defense Council identified one or more types of hazardous chemicals called pthalates (THAL-ates) in 12 of 14 types of air-freshening products tested, including those advertised as “all natural” or “unscented.” Pthalates are used in many common consumer products, including the plastic in children’s toys, in addition to air fresheners. Their use is not regulated in such products, nor is product labeling required to alert consumers to the presence of pthalates. These chemicals have been associated with disruption of hormone levels and genital development and toxic effects on general reproductive and developmental health.

Historically, scents were derived from real plant and animal sources, but the modern fragrance industry has replaced many of these natural ingredients with chemical compounds. Over 3,000 chemicals are now used in making fragrances and one product can contain many different chemicals. Synthetic scent ingredients are increasingly linked to health problems.

For people with medical conditions such as asthma, migraines or chemical sensitivity, scented products can trigger serious health reactions leading to illness and even hospitalization. Children are often more sensitive to chemical scents. And an energy-efficient home can trap and significantly increase the concentration of chemical pollutants.

So do your homework and use your Green Good Sense when selecting any festive scents.

Wishing you happy and healthy holidays (and dry socks) – Green Jean