TRANSPARENCY / LAB INDEX
What “fragrance” is allowed to hide.
Ambient scent runs all day in air that staff and guests share. The question is not whether the room smells expensive. It is whether you can stand behind what is in that air.
01
Fragrance.
One word, protected under trade secret, it can legally conceal up to hundreds of chemicals that manufacturers are not obligated to disclose.
02
What this costs a commercial space
A list of chemicals does not move a hotel, clinic, or office. Occupancy does. Scent is already in the room. These are the costs of not knowing what is in it.
Reviews leave first
Guests rarely write “undisclosed aroma chemicals.” They write heavy, headache, too much scent, had to step outside. One public note is cheaper to prevent than to answer.
Staff live in the air
Visitors pass through. Staff breathe it for a full shift. Fragrance sensitivity is common enough that in any workplace a share of people are affected whether they say so or not. You own the air they share.
“What’s in it?” is now a real question
Brand, procurement, a tenant, or a parent will ask. “Fragrance” is not an answer. An undisclosed mix is a file you cannot show.
You don’t need a riot. You need one person
Survey research finds about a third of adults report problems with fragranced consumer products — air fresheners, cleaning, personal care; not one brand and not one machine. You do not need all of them to complain. You need one review, one pregnant colleague, one guest who leaves.
Steinemann A. et al., Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health, 2016–2019. Population surveys of fragranced consumer products generally.
03
What that chemistry can include
Most synthetic fragrance is petrochemical-derived
Many synthetic fragrance compounds are manufactured from petroleum feedstocks. Benzene, toluene, and xylene derivatives are common starting materials.
Endocrine disruption
Phthalates are often used as fixatives and carriers. Four — DEHP, DBP, BBP, DIBP — are recognized under EU REACH as substances of very high concern and restricted to 0.1% by weight in consumer and indoor-use products.
Bioaccumulation
Synthetic musks such as Galaxolide (HHCB) and Tonalide (AHTN) resist breakdown. They have been detected in human blood, breast milk, and fat tissue, and in waterways downstream of wastewater treatment.
Indoor accumulation
In enclosed commercial spaces, continuously diffused compounds can accumulate rather than dissipate. Indoor air quality standards increasingly account for cumulative VOC exposure.
04
What’s on a commercial disclosure
Air-Scent International publishes a fragrance-disclosure page with CAS numbers. Part of each formula is still a trade secret. Below is every row from that public list that carries a specific health or regulatory flag — not the long tail of unnamed-by-botanical aroma chemicals. Extract dated September 2026. This is Air-Scent’s disclosure, not ScentAir, and not a lab test of every competitor.
This is what one major house has put on a public page. If that chemistry is in your machine, this is the paper you would have to defend.
Chemical name
Health / regulatory flag
Butylphenyl methylpropional (Lilial)
EU banned (reproductive toxicant)
Crystalline silica (quartz)
IARC Group 1 carcinogen — listed; classification is for respirable dust
HICC / Lyral (hydroxyisohexyl 3-cyclohexene carboxaldehyde)
EU allergen — also EU-restricted
Hydrotreated light distillate (petroleum)
Petroleum solvent / VOC
Naphtha (petroleum), hydrotreated heavy
Petroleum solvent / VOC
Stoddard solvent
Petroleum solvent / VOC
Isopropanol (isopropyl alcohol)
Solvent / VOC
Quaternary ammonium compounds, benzyl-C12-16-alkyldimethyl, chlorides
Disinfectant compound (respiratory sensitizer)
Quaternary ammonium compounds, C12-18-alkyl[(ethylphenyl)methyl]dimethyl, chlorides
Disinfectant compound (respiratory sensitizer)
Polyethylene glycol mono(octylphenyl) ether
Endocrine-disruptor-class surfactant
Benzyl alcohol
EU-designated fragrance allergen
Benzyl benzoate
EU-designated fragrance allergen
Benzyl salicylate
EU-designated fragrance allergen
Cinnamal (cinnamaldehyde)
EU-designated fragrance allergen
Citral
EU-designated fragrance allergen
Citronellol
EU-designated fragrance allergen
Coumarin
EU-designated fragrance allergen
D-Limonene
EU-designated fragrance allergen
Eugenol
EU-designated fragrance allergen
Farnesol
EU-designated fragrance allergen
Geraniol
EU-designated fragrance allergen
Isoeugenol
EU-designated fragrance allergen
Linalool
EU-designated fragrance allergen
Methyl 2-octynoate / methyl nonynoate
EU-designated fragrance allergen
Oakmoss extract (Evernia prunastri)
EU-designated fragrance allergen
Several EU-declared allergens on this list — including linalool, limonene, geraniol, citral, citronellol and eugenol — also occur in essential oils. They are here because they were named on that disclosure. That is not a claim that every terpene is a unique poison. The contrast is solvent load, banned or restricted extras, and whether the rest of the formula stays hidden.
Source: Air-Scent International, public Fragrance Disclosures (airscent.com/fragrance-disclosures). Extract September 2026. Independent GC-MS of any product you currently use is available on request.
Download the full disclosure extract
05
What doctors are saying
Dr. Yvonne Burkart, PhD
Board-certified toxicologist, 22+ years in reproductive toxicity and endocrine disruption; former Senior Toxicologist inside the flavor and fragrance industry.
“The seemingly innocuous little term on the ingredients list, ‘fragrance’ or ‘parfum,’ can contain a huge number of chemicals. It’s hidden behind this umbrella term… It is considered trade secret. And within that chemical mixture are known carcinogens, endocrine disruptors like phthalates, and the most potent allergens known to man.”
“They contain undisclosed fragrance. And within fragrance, there can be endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, and allergens.”
“Benzene is a known human carcinogen. Formaldehyde is a human carcinogen. What place does it have in a beauty and personal care product?”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett, Nov 18, 2024 (video interview).
Dr. Trisha Pasricha, MD
Internal medicine physician, instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School; writes the “Ask a Doctor” column for The Washington Post.
“The chemical is a phthalate and that’s one chemical that’s part of this group called endocrine disrupting chemicals.”
“If you just see the word ‘fragrance’ buried somewhere in that paragraph, that tells you it probably does have a phthalate in it that’s probably not being disclosed.”
CBS News Boston (WBZ), Dec 2024; The Washington Post, Dec 2, 2024.
Dr. Leo Trasande, MD, MPP
Professor of Pediatrics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine; leads an NIH-funded environmental health research center; author of Sicker, Fatter, Poorer.
“Endocrine disrupting chemicals contribute to conditions that affect 99% of us — obesity, diabetes, infertility, cognitive deficits, autism, ADHD, endometriosis and fibroids.”
Toxic-Free Future interview, 2022. Peer-reviewed research (The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, 2016) puts the annual U.S. disease burden from endocrine-disrupting chemicals at $340 billion.
Dr. Lora Shahine, MD
Reproductive endocrinologist, Pacific NW Fertility (Seattle); Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Washington.
In her published clinical writing, Dr. Shahine states that phthalates are endocrine disruptors that interfere with reproductive hormone function, and cites research associating higher phthalate levels with longer time to conception, poor egg and sperm quality, and increased miscarriage risk.
drlorashahine.com, “Phthalates and Your Reproductive Health.”
A note on precision: these statements are attributed to named individuals and refer to specific compounds — principally phthalates, benzene, and formaldehyde — not to “synthetic fragrance” as an undifferentiated category. Some dermatologists and industry scientists dispute the endocrine-disruption framing as overstated, and the U.S. FDA states there is currently insufficient evidence that phthalates in cosmetics are hazardous at typical exposure levels. This presents credentialed medical opinion, not uncontested scientific consensus.
06
Our standard
We formulate with named botanicals and list ALL of our ingredients. Transparency is the standard, not the word “fragrance.”
Named botanicals only
No “fragrance / parfum” as a black box
Anhydrous nebulizer, no cartridge dilution
No phthalate carriers
No synthetic musks (HHCB, AHTN)
What we share on request: GC/MS, organic certifications, supplier documents
We test finished blends periodically through independent labs — not every bottle. We are small. Per-batch files come when volume justifies them.
Transparency is the standard, not the word “fragrance.” Named botanicals. No black box. No phthalate carriers. No synthetic musks. Lab files on request.
07
See both files
We don’t need you to believe essential oils are medicine. We need you to look at two reports. Send the oil in your machine now. We run GC-MS plus phthalate and allergen screening next to ours. You get both files. Nothing gets ripped out of the ceiling until you have read them.
If you need language for brand, facilities, or ownership: we disclose every botanical, there is no “fragrance” black box, and there is no petroleum distillate in the formula.
Sources
European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), REACH Regulation · International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Monographs · Peer-reviewed biomonitoring literature on synthetic musk compounds · Air-Scent International, Fragrance Disclosures, airscent.com/fragrance-disclosures (accessed September 2026).