Toxic Dryer Sheets

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Toxic dryer sheets

Anyone else allergic to the 'new' dryer sheets that are out on the market?

On her show last season Bonnie Hunt mentioned them as bothering her.

Gain is just one of the brands that knocks you dead on the sidewalk when passing a house doing laundry while trying to give your dog a nice stroll in the fresh air. For me it's the one that nearly killed me last year. Toxic!

My neighbors started using Gain dryer sheets last summer (it took a year to learn the cause, as my symptoms returned when we started keeping the windows open again this year and have breathed the fumes in) It hits my central nervous system instantly, shakes/trembles, severe dizziness (even laying down with eyes closed), memory loss, stomach pain/shut off my digestive system (so I wasn't absorbing food or water for three weeks, I lost 24 pounds in those weeks last year - took eight months to get it back), + couple other symptoms.

None of the following used to bother me, since coming in contact and suffering such a severe allergic reaction to these dryer sheets I'm now newly allergic to all candles, any chemical fragrance, severely allergic to bleach and lysol fumes (I can now detect the faintest traces of bleach with a white hot burn to my tongue when I come around it), most non-natural soaps (three uses of Dial soap sent me to the ER with severe food poisoning symptoms last Nov) most lotions (make me really dizzy) and many other new allergies. They are all chemical related though I haven't gained any natural allergies. I'm starting a stir to stop the market on the dryer sheets containing certain chemicals. The only brand I can use now is Bounce Free (Bounce outdoor fresh too - though it's so strong I only use that if the store is out of the Free).

When my neighbors use their Gain laundry poison I scramble to shut the doors and windows (can't afford to keep the AC on all night). The company designs these things to have 'all day freshness' and brag about it in the ads giving of bursts of fragrance as you move.. You bet it does! I can literally smell Gain on people when walking behind them in the store (I freak them out by telling them they use it and I can smell it - I leave off that it's killing me ) and also in some cases driving behind them. What a fix to be in when you can't afford to move out of city/suburban areas to the country. It's not something you can do, ask neighbors to switch. People who are sensitive are stuck as more and more surrounding neighbors use this brand. This month the people on the other side of me are now using it! I'm already newly allergic to so much it really makes living a pain in the butt! I average 5-7 migraines a month.

Interesting link:
Toxic Dryer Sheets
http://www.immuneweb.org/articles/fabricsoftener.html

Anyone else affected by these? Anyone who might not have made the connection to allergic symptoms?

Yes. But then dryer sheets have always been a problem for me.
Oddly, I do collect certain textures of used ones off the laundromat floor when go to do laundry as they are great for making weathered tarpaper roofs on model train buildings.

Really feel for you.
Have had similar, not quite as severe, for a long time. Mine also includes petrochemicals - meaning oil and gasoline. It sucks. Majorly.
And there's not one blankety blank thing you can do about it.
It's not allergies so allergy medicine won't stop the reactions. Your body considers it poison - Only thing to do is get away from it.

There's also no after shave, cologne, or perfume in our house.
Air fresheners are in a surprising amount of places - like most public restrooms. That can be just a tad inconvenient.

You may have to start being careful with shampoos and conditioners as well as bath soap.

And the treatment chemicals used in processing lumber may give you trouble around unpainted wood.

In the train models I do I have to be careful about what kinds of paints and glues - am very thankful there are water-based paints now so I can still get away with that.

Wish I had some, even one, ideas to make the reactions less.

Oh goodness it sounds like you are having a bad time.

Are you talking about those paper sheets which people put in the dryer with their clothing ?

I am surprised that ethyl acetate, pentane and chloroform are in the sheets. These are very low boiling point and chloroform has a tendency to diffuse through plastic sheets such as a plastic packet.

My advice to you would be to request a MSDS (Manufactories Safety Data Sheet) from gain, I know UK law on the matter. If you sell any substance (ranging from engine oil to hair spray) you must have a MSDS for the substance. Then you can find out what is in the sheets, from that you can find out if it is a substance which is known to cause an allergic reaction.

If you can not get a MSDS if US law allows them to refuse to issue one, then my advice is to get someone who has a GCMS to do the following.

1. Do head space GCMS on part of a gain sheet
2. Also extract a gain sheet with solvent and do GCMS on the extract.

These two experiments will tell you what volatile organics are present in the gain sheets.

_________________
Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

Anything with that much perfume in it bothers me.

I've not tried it yet, but I'm told hanging up sheets of Bounce will repel wasps.

I had a feeling I would learn a fair amount if I posted this here...

southwestforests, thank you for the tips and ideas. Yes, public restroom air fresheners hit me right between the eyes, I'm blindly reaching for the door handle by the time I can exit. I'm thinking about carrying a surgical mask (won't prevent all fumes, my doctor says we can absorb airborne fumes through our skin too, but should help) for moments like that, appearance and others opinions should come a notch below severe reactions.

Yes, on the shampoo and conditioners too. I've found the few I can use are Suave 'Daily Clarifying' (no dyes or additives) and similar. I can't even use Johnson and Johnson who claim as being gentle. There are a number of products which claim to be all natural that I've tried this past year only to react to them. If it says all natural (shampoo, soap, cleaning tools) and it's sold at Wal-mart... odds are it's not (I go to the vitamin store for better chances). The Clorox Green Works wipes that are on the market are really toxic, they add something to aid the wipes cleaning abilities... but on the other hand the Green spray is fine with me.

I mainly clean with peroxide, baking soda, rubbing alcohol, or diluted grapefruit seed extract. Mr. Clean sponges are great too. They sell natural lavender bags at Trader Joes that are a nice alternative to dryer sheets. Also there are vinyl balls on the market that you can add (by the half dozen) which bounce around with your clothes claiming to prevent/remove static.


Woodpecker, Yes, on the dryer sheets being the chemical treated paper/fabric pieces you add to your drying cycle. Thanks so much on the MSDS info. I will most definitely ask for that. Cheers!


Willard, yes, I heard that too only to repel mosquitoes. Not sure if it works or not. I do know that Bounce is the milder brand of all the dryer sheets. I wouldn't recommend trying that with Gain... it would certainly repel me.

I don't have anything to add about having allergies to chemicals and stuff but I use natural dryer balls instead of dryer sheets. They work very well and leave no detectable odor. This is the website of the ones that I have, Nellie's All Natural . One of mine actually fell apart in 9 months (different than the ones they have now) and when I emailed them, they sent me out a new set right away and free of charge.

I didn't even know dryer sheets existed. Are they something used in dryer machines? I have never noticed any effect with those.

I use Ultra Downy free & sensitive liquid fabric softener (add to the final rinse.) I also use fragrance-free laundry detergent.

It is an allergy - I am so diagnosed.

I have trouble with all the things you have trouble with, but it's not the fact that they are chemicals... I have similar problems with the smell of flowers, especially the lilac bush we have out front.

My roommate loves air freshener sprays. Obviously that is a problem. Recently, thinking about the fact that I love the smell of strawberries, I decided to try Glade "Fruit Explosion," and found that I have almost no problem with that.

This is BY FAR the biggest problem I have with my AS. I can deal with everything else.

I'm not as allergic to chemicals as you, but I do get headaches and have a sensitive easily overwhelmed sense of smell. Some fabric softeners =
If you use distilled white vinegar in the machine where you'd use fabric softener, it makes the clothes softer and strips out the last of the detergent.

If static is the problem, use some cheap bland hair conditioner in the machine instead. That won't gas you or make your skin itch. Sometimes starch can help get rid of static, but use the plain dry dissolvable starch instead of the perfumed spray starch in cans.

For soap, I use unscented sorbolene soap now. Perfumes are lovely, but can be strong and distracting sometimes!

I can't stand those things! They reek!