Skin allergy

[xHannahX13]

I have a skin allergy to laundry detergent. I was told that its common in babies and some people don't really grow out of it, but its real irritating. Is there a specific detergent or fabric softner to help it?

[Scarlett217]

My husband is the same way. We have found that All detergent in the white bottle is very gentle. It's usually the phosphates that people are allergic to. Dryer sheets are the worst!!

[WildChild]

If you are using a dry laundry detergent it could also be a filler such as ground corn cobs causing the problem. The perfumes can be a biggie too. Dryer sheets are Horrible:

The Toxic Danger of Fabric Softener and Dryer Sheets
by SixWise.com

Many people will remember a famous TV ad where a woman races to her washing machine, fabric softener in hand, only to arrive just as the wash ends. This woman who "forgot to ad the fabric softener" was actually doing herself and her family a favor.
Although they may make your clothes feel soft and smell fresh, fabric softener and dryer sheets are some of the most toxic products around. And chances are that the staggering 99.8 percent of Americans who use common commercial detergents, fabric softeners, bleaches, and stain removers would think twice if they knew they contained chemicals that could cause cancer and brain damage.

Here is a list of just some of the chemicals found in fabric softeners and dryer sheets:

• Benzyl acetate: Linked to pancreatic cancer
• Benzyl Alcohol: Upper respiratory tract irritant
• Ethanol: On the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Hazardous Waste list and can cause central nervous system disorders
• Limonene: Known carcinogen
• A-Terpineol: Can cause respiratory problems, including fatal edema, and central nervous system damage
• Ethyl Acetate: A narcotic on the EPA's Hazardous Waste list
• Camphor: Causes central nervous system disorders
• Chloroform: Neurotoxic, anesthetic and carcinogenic
• Linalool: A narcotic that causes central nervous system disorders
• Pentane: A chemical known to be harmful if inhaled

So how could products with pretty names like Soft Ocean Mist, Summer Orchard and April Fresh be so dangerous?
The chemicals in fabric softeners are pungent and strong smelling -- so strong that they require the use of these heavy fragrances (think 50 times as much fragrance) just to cover up the smells. Furthermore, synthetic fabrics, which are the reason fabric softeners were created in the first place, do not smell good either when heated in a dryer or heated by our bodies ... hence the need for even more hefty fragrances.
In other words, remove all the added fragrance that endears people to fabric softeners and -- like the cliché wolf in sheep's clothing -- the real smells of the chemical-laced fabric softener and the synthetic fabrics they were designed around may prompt people to shoot their laundry machines and be done with it.
Are "Soft" Clothes Worth It?
Fabric softeners are made to stay in your clothing for long periods of time. As such, chemicals are slowly released either into the air for you to inhale or onto your skin for you to absorb. Dryer sheets are particularly noxious because they are heated in the dryer and the chemicals are released through dryer vents and out into the environment. Health effects from being exposed to the chemicals in fabric softeners include:

• Central nervous system disorders
• Headaches
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Dizziness
• Blood pressure reduction
• Irritation to skin, mucus membranes and respiratory tract
• Pancreatic cancer

Soften Your Clothes Safely With These Tips
Even if you don't feel the effects of these chemicals today, they can affect you gradually over time, and children, whose systems are still developing, are particularly at risk. There's really no reason to expose yourself to these risky chemicals when natural alternatives exist. Not only are they safer for you, your family and the environment, but they're much more economical too:

• Add a quarter cup of baking soda to wash cycle to soften fabric
• Add a quarter cup of white vinegar to rinse to soften fabric and eliminate cling
• Check out your local health food store for a natural fabric softener that uses a natural base like soy instead of chemicals

It's likely that fabric softeners and dryer sheets aren't the only toxic products in your home. Many household products that consumers regard as safe are also full of toxic chemicals.

[ItsASecret]

The fact is everything we do, everything we eat, everything we are exposed to will have chemicals associated with it. And many if not all chemicals will have a lethal dose, meaning if a certain dose is met within our bodies you will die, but we are talking some pretty extreme requirements to get to those levels. Researchers are not lacking intelligence when they manufacture these products. They know what levels are not going to harm the body, and they manipulate those amounts so we do not die from drying our clothes. We will never be able to run and hide from the 'bad' chemicals like for example mercury, each and every single one of us has it in our bodies right now and it will always be there. It is unfortunate that a lot of people have these allergies just because these products will never go away.

Just a side note, fragrances use organic compounds. Organic compounds are derived from living things like plants and animals (having carbon is the technical way of saying that something is organic) so everything that is claimed to be bad and oh so terrible can literally be growing in your backyard in the form of a pretty flower. When a chemical compound is brought up in a sentence many people's reaction is to freak out thinking the worst without looking at actual facts, like say what the chemical actually is. The only chemicals in that list which can have significant harm (at much much higher levels) are chloroform and linanool (if oxidized I believe). The itchiness can be explained from the linanool. People would literally need to eat dryer sheets as a meal everyday to get any sort of real toxic effect going on. Since people are not that radical there is nothing left but to overexaggerate the worry. The real worry should be more along the lines of getting across the street safely without getting hit by a drunk driver.

[WildChild]

Nice viewpoint but I have gotten quite ill from exposure to the fumes of drier sheets. For those of us who are hypersensitive, they can trigger severe reactions.

[ItsASecret]

Yeah I know some people are sensitive to things, heck I can only use one type of deodorant. Unless a person sniffs a dryer sheet all day, everyday there is still no way to say that it causes any of the symptoms since there are countless numbers of other disease-causing agents and pathogens in daily life that can cause the same thing. That is why ethically there will be no studies to say yeah the dryer sheets are causing Mr. Magoo to develop pancreatic cancer. I can understand the frustration but I would just hope that people riddling this information out there would take a second and think about the physical facts behind it before making sweeping generalizations that it is a horrid compound.

However the choloroform in that list does bother me because I have used that in my chemistry labs and the prof said be careful, mind you we were using higher concentrations but it is still the point of Mr. PhD saying to be careful means we needed to be careful. I do not know why ethanol is on that list though, ethanol is alcohol...some people drink more of that in a night than what could be expelled in drying your clothes over several years.

[WildChild]

The concern is that an increasing percent of the population is having trouble with senisitivities and allergies. Those of us who deal with this (I'm a canary in the coal mine so to speak) know that even a tiny exposure can set off our reactions and then cross over reactions can occur and it can rapid spiral out of control. For myself and other that I know, laundry products are a serious problem. I can hardly stand to walk down the aisle at the store, that is enough to kick in a response.

[ItsASecret]

Yeah it does suck that it is so hard to avoid. There will always be a greater majority who do not have these reactions and those who have adverse reactions are always going to be taken into account with simple placement of hypoallergenic and "go green" products being put on the shelves.

[WildChild]

I'm very allergic to parabens which are in many "hypoallergenic" products. LOL

[ItsASecret]

That sucks even more lol. Seems like you got the very rare short straw for all of these related things. I guess I should be happy that I can only use one type of deodorant. Have you thought of getting allergy shots?...actually I have never even heard of there being a shot for a paraben allergy.