Pretty Stinky

About 30 or 40 years ago a commercial appeared in popular magazines saying "Beethoven never smelled this good before." Sweatshirts with pictures of Beethoven were in style and the ads were pushing laundry detergent with perfume in it.

That commercial can be remembered as the beginning of the fragrance age in America. Before that people wore perfume, cologne, or "toilet water," some cosmetics contained fragrance, and some people used scents in their homes to cover up unpleasant odors, but that was about all.

Then fragrances became used everywhere. Laundry and cleaning products were only the beginning. Since then fragrances have been added to hundreds, if not thousands, of products. Stores, restaurants, churches, and even offices fill the air with smells. And most of those are made with chemicals.

When we smell something all the time we become less aware of it so many people don't even realize their clothes, hair, bodies, and the places they spend time are full of them.

'Odor eliminators' don't actually take odors out of the air. Instead they contain airborne chemicals that counteract our sense of smell.

Since the chemical fragrances and odor eliminators became prevalent there has been a great increase in autism and cancer. Could there be a relationship here?

If the chemicals I'm talking about directly caused those conditions everyone would have them, and that's not the case. But what if that's one of two or more factors that work together to cause one of those conditions?

Even if that were not a possibility thousands of people have allergies and chemical sensitivities to perfumes so it would be helpful to them if we all switch to using fragrance free products as much as possible. By doing so we might even save some lives.

Cancer Discoveries

News is traveling around on the internet that scientists have discovered the cause of cancer. Studies of skin and lung cancer have shown that mutations in the DNA in those parts of the body are caused by exposure to cigarette smoke and ultraviolet light from the sun and some of those changes make the cells become cancerous. It's likely that other forms of cancer are also caused by genetic mutations.

It will take a lot more research before scientists can discover treatments that can cure cancer, but at least this is a step in the right direction and offers hope that someday a cure will be developed.

In the meantime the study offers convincing evidence of the dangers of smoking and too much sun exposure. Perhaps the study will convince more people to protect themselves from those dangers and, as a result, cut down on the frequency of melanoma and lung cancer.

Microwaves, etc.

There used to be an urban legend making the rounds that said microwave ovens caused cancer. That was long ago when microwaves first became popular and people no longer believe it. Microwaves are basically a different frequency of radio waves.

But it seems like cancer is much more prevalent than it used to be and I wonder if modern inventions are at least part of the cause.

Of course cancer is diagnosed much more accurately than it was in the past. In the 1940s and 50s many of the people who died of "old age" might actually have had undiagnosed cancer. But it seems likely that the deteriorating air quality from pollution and the multiple preservatives and other chemicals routinely added to our food and medicines might at least be a negative influence that makes people more likely to get that disease.

I wonder if any scientific studies have been done on this topic.