Air Fresheners and Candles Causing Allergy Symptoms?

Sure your house smells like you just pulled a savory pumpkin or apple pie out of the oven, but your sinuses may be suffering.  In case you missed this in the news, all of your allergy symptoms could be caused by those air fresheners or scented candles you are burning.  Check out this short article:

http://news.yahoo.com/air-fresheners-scented-candles-linked-allergies-153937907.html

  I recently bought some popular brand air fresheners and Brooklyn was immediately bothered.  She was sneezy and stuffy.  She was rubbing her eyes.   It made me wonder; What are the actual ingredients in these smell good devises?  My research led me to this website:

http://www.epa.gov/kidshometour/products/airf.htm

Wow.  Formaldehyde is a main ingredient in air fresheners.  That is an extremely toxic substance to humans.   Check out what formaldehyde does to humans, go down to number 3 and 4 to take a look at the short term and long term effects of formaldehyde:

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/formaldehyde


Just in case you never want to buy another air freshener after reading all of this, I came up with a list of ways to make your house smell great without the toxic air freshener or scented candle:

1.   Put your favorite essential oil or pure vanilla extract on a cotton ball then place in a small dish out of reach of children and pets.

2.  Buy some plants.  Plants help clean the air.

3.  Place orange peels in stinky places for a few hours.  It really works well in cars.

4.  Or dry some orange peels, lemon peels, and cinnamon sticks, then simmer in a pot of hot water.  Your house will smell delicious.

5. Really bake an apple or pumpkin pie so your house will smell that way.  Then BONUS:  You get to eat it!

If you have any more ideas to get our houses smelling fabulous then please share your idea in the comment section!