[00:00:00] Aaron Goodman: You’re listening to The Chemical Sensitivity Podcast. I’m Aaron Goodman. I walk our dog many times a day, and like many of you, stepping outside means taking chances—who’s doing their laundry, blowing chemicals from their dryer vents? I know on Mondays or Tuesdays it’s folks next to us and I remind myself to close our kitchen window and walk in the other direction.

 A few times though, it’s cost me. Last week, my wife was sitting in the living room. I walked in, noticed the distinct smell of laundry products coming through the open window, rushed to close it, but one breath, and it was too late. It was Monday. By Wednesday, I was almost back to normal, but in the interim it was difficult to sleep.

 I get neuropathy after reactions. It feels like an electric current runs through my spine. From the base of my neck, my feet tingle. It lasts for hours. Always. At night, my eyes burn. My chest feels tight, my mind slows down. I dread it, and I can’t wait to feel normal again. Each reaction—I don’t know about you— I feel surprised. I… how could one breath of the toxin affect me so much? We know this illness, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, is far more than a sensitivity. So often for so many of us, it’s debilitating. We all have our triggers and our reactions are individual, but what we share is a need for safe spaces, to be believed.

When we ask for accommodation, asking for folks to be scent free is not an imposition. It’s not a frivolous request. For the longest time, I’ve struggled to understand: how could people continue to cause harm to others—for example, by filling the block with the scent of their highly scented laundry products?
 How could a journalist mock people with a recognized disability? This happened in Montreal, in Quebec, in Canada recently. I admit it. I didn’t read the article. I knew it would be upsetting, but I understood the reporter’s missive—one individual with a platform expressing his displeasure: the mere thought of people being asked to not use fragrance products because they harm others.
 And when organizations claim it’s an administrative burden to ask people to be fragrance free, I don’t buy it. We’ve implemented no-smoking rules and peanut-free places. And one day, I know we all hope MCS will be recognized widely as an illness that’s rooted in the body. There’ll be tougher rules on what kinds of products can be made and sold.

 Hopefully our neighbors and colleagues, our families and friends will hear us. Hopefully we’ll be able to walk on the streets and be anywhere without being exposed to chemicals that harm us. You’re listening to The Chemical Sensitivity Podcast. I’m Aaron Goodman. I’m a journalist, documentary maker and researcher, but I’m also someone who’s lived with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, or MCS, for years.

 MCS affects millions around the world. It’s a condition that makes everyday life extremely challenging and unpredictable. Fragrance, air fresheners, fresh paint, scented laundry products on someone’s clothing, and a lot more contribute exhaustion, brain fog, muscle pain, rashes, and a wide range of symptoms.
 And yet, for all its impacts, MCS remains largely invisible. Doctors mostly dismiss it. Employers rarely accommodate it. Even friends and family struggle to understand. This podcast aims to change that. We dive into the latest research, share real stories, and explore how people navigate life with an illness many refuse to see.

In this episode, I’m speaking with Gertrud Morlock. Gertrud is a professor at the Institute of Nutritional Science and Chair of Food Science at the Interdisciplinary Research Center at Justus Liebig University Giessen, in Giessen, Germany. I reached out to Professor Morlock and invited her to speak about her fascinating 2025 scholarly paper titled “Fast Unmasking of Safe Perfumes.” You’ll hear Professor Morlock explore how perfume formulations are often protected as trade secrets and how small quantities of these compounds have measurable toxic effects in the lab, and how people with MCS have long known that so-called safe fragrances can cause harm. Professor Morlock, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast.

[00:05:16] Gertrud Morlock: Thank you, Aaron. It’s a pleasure for me to join you.

[00:05:20] Aaron Goodman: Would you like to briefly introduce yourself to listeners and let folks know what your major interests are?

[00:05:29] Gertrud Morlock: I am a full professor in Germany at the university that is located close to Frankfurt. I’m in the field of active compounds in complex samples like cosmetics, perfumes, but also soil and food.

[00:05:47] Aaron Goodman: And before we dive into your paper on safe fragrance—why is this of interest for you, Professor? Fragrances seem to be getting stronger and stronger. I wonder if that was part of your motivation in saying, hey, what’s going on?

[00:06:04] Gertrud Morlock: Full, full agreement. Perfume—it is everywhere and I think it need not to be everywhere. We should reduce it.

[00:06:13] Aaron Goodman: I think sometimes we have the impression in North America that in Europe the situation is a little bit better when it comes to fragrance regulation. Do you have any thoughts on that? Uh, are you protected in a way from precautionary regulation in the EU?

[00:06:28] Gertrud Morlock: So in the European Union, we have some regulations, for example, EC 1223 is on cosmetic products, or 1545 on labeling such products. And so we have some regulation, but it is of course trade secret. So a manufacturer need not to… to declare all the ingredients, and fragrances and scents can be composed of hundreds of individual compounds. Grapefruit fragrances can consist of hundreds compounds, and perfume itself can be composed of dozens of different fragrances. And this… it’s not listed. A manufacturer has to conform to these regulations and he also must notify his product. There is a product notification portal and there he types in maybe the basic fragrances and data he has, and then there authorities check, and that’s it because trade secret means you need not to list individual compounds.

[00:07:39] Aaron Goodman: And do you meet more and more people who share concerns about the potency of fragrance?

[00:07:47] Gertrud Morlock: The more you know, the more you see such people. So more and more I see such people who suffer, but maybe not only because of perfumes, but also cosmetic products. So they try to avoid everything in this context, so no perfume, no cosmetic and no cleaning products as well.

[00:08:08] Aaron Goodman: So do you want to walk me through, in basic terms, what are some of the major categories of harmful toxins or chemicals that you found in fragrance that’s perhaps surprised you?

[00:08:22] Gertrud Morlock: So we saw several different groups of compounds like the mineral-oil-based MOS, MOA that are mineral-oil-derived—has compounds also… breakdown products or oxidation products or more lipophilic compounds. More oxidized, lipophilic compounds have strong genotoxic, photogenic effects. So one… one more—products are based on mineral oil, or most fragrances are based on mineral oils. Not every perfume is based on essential oils. Nowadays it’s cheaper to produce petro-chemistry, mineral-oil-chemistry-based fragrances.

[00:09:14] Aaron Goodman: That’s what I was wondering. When you say mineral oil, are we talking about petrochemicals?

[00:09:35] Gertrud Morlock: Yes.

[00:09:35] Aaron Goodman: When we talk about petrochemicals, I think of a gas station where I put gas in my car. This is petrochemicals. How is it that petrochemicals are used so frequently in fragrance? What’s the connection?

[00:09:50] Gertrud Morlock: Petrol chemistry means, uh, you can easily build up small molecules and… mm-hmm… yeah. The molecules in petrol stuff is ideal to produce such fragrance molecules.

[00:10:08] Aaron Goodman: Right. So when you talk about it, I’m picturing like a compound that’s malleable. It sounds like it’s like a glue that stuff kind of sticks to, or it’s like the base that you can add the fragrance to it or make with, and that ends up lasting a really long time and become potent.

[00:10:32] Gertrud Morlock: Yeah. There were… were some investigations that showed that even if you shower, have a shower every day—mm-hmm—uh, part of the molecules can be detected, seen, observed even after some weeks, and ethanol is the main component in perfume, and it even helps to penetrate the skin,

[00:10:42] Aaron Goodman: and that’s not good. So ethanol’s helping to leach through the skin, and that means all the other hazardous toxins have an entry into the skin, I assume.

[00:10:56] Gertrud Morlock: If you have a very healthy skin, maybe it’s not a problem. So with shaving, you also can have micro cuts of the skin—mm-hmm—and that of course also helps chemicals penetrate even better.

[00:11:10] Aaron Goodman: And so we’re ingesting, absorbing petrochemicals, ethanol. What are maybe one or two other really serious chemical compounds that are found in fragrance that you came across?

[00:11:17] Gertrud Morlock: So some that are oxidized, we see more often being genotoxic or multigenic.

[00:11:27] Aaron Goodman: So when you talk about genotoxic, can you break that down a little bit for me? We’re talking about genes, toxicity to genes. What does that mean in practice?

[00:11:58] Gertrud Morlock: So we saw genotoxic compounds in perfumes, and that means that the DNA can be damaged. But if you are lucky, also be repaired again. But we also saw mutagenic compounds in the perfumes. That means that the compounds in the perfume go via the skin to the DNA, but they change the DNA permanently, so that’s more dangerous.

[00:12:02] Aaron Goodman: What concerns do you have about that? What does it do?

[00:12:18] Gertrud Morlock: I mean, if you have the entry path of mutagenic compounds into your body—mm-hmm—and it is going into the blood, it is systemically available everywhere, and such compounds can finally cause cancer.

[00:12:51] Aaron Goodman: And some people, when it comes to Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and chemical intolerance—some people develop the illness after a series of exposure to smaller amounts and sometimes to large amounts at one time. In my case, it was a pesticide that triggered the, um, chronic illness. On a daily basis, fragrance really impacts me—as it does millions of people—and some people develop the illness after exposure to fragrance, to perfume itself. I wonder, that probably doesn’t surprise you, knowing what you know of fragrance.

[00:13:18] Gertrud Morlock: So I’m not a medicinal scientist, but I heard about that cases—my students recorded such cases—or after COVID you got then very sensitive. Then I think maybe it is connected to some enzymes inside your body that detoxify the chemicals, maybe do not work very efficiently and then you can get these diseases.

[00:13:40] Aaron Goodman: I wonder if you want to talk a little bit anonymously about the students. What kind of things do they report about the impacts of fragrance? Because I ask because sometimes people aren’t aware that the symptoms fall under the umbrella of chemical intolerance—whether it’s migraine or changes, disorder, neuropathy, tingling in the body, and many other symptoms.
 What kinds of symptoms are they experiencing?

[00:13:53] Gertrud Morlock: Uh, very diverse… pox symptoms, but very exhausted and, as you said, migraine and not well feeling and inefficiency and—

[00:13:54] Aaron Goodman: yeah,

[00:13:58] Gertrud Morlock: being tired and towards depressive being.

[00:13:58] Aaron Goodman: It makes a lot of sense. Professor, your title of your paper mentions safe perfume. You’re unpacking this misnomer of safe perfume. Is there anything at all such as a safe perfume? Does it exist?

[00:14:15] Gertrud Morlock: We screened 42 perfumes, and among these perfumes, we have not found a perfume that was free of toxic compounds.

[00:14:26] Aaron Goodman: Professor Morlock, are these being marketed as quote-unquote safe?

[00:14:31] Gertrud Morlock: Of course, if products are on the market—at least at the European Union—if products are on the market, it should be safe. Sure. And they are assumed by consumers that these products are safe. Sure. Par is ethanol and water, and when it’s a bit of fragrance, but…
 We know that small amounts can be highly toxic,

[00:14:55] Aaron Goodman: and this is the thing for people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. We react to small amounts and we know that small amounts are not safe. So is that basically what you’re sharing—that even small amounts are hazardous?

[00:15:09] Gertrud Morlock: We see that the small amounts do make a lot of adverse effect, and it depends on the individual. Some can have no problems at all, but others do have problems. So in general, I would say perfumes are not so safe.

[00:15:27] Aaron Goodman: Is there any hope that regulation will actually lead to safer products—fragrance products?

[00:15:34] Gertrud Morlock: I hope so, because I think it’s very dangerous. We… we need to take care about very sensitive persons or even infants or childs, and if you have a baby on your shoulder and you are full of these fragrances and perfumes, I think that’s not good. I really would recommend every mother not to give the baby to someone who has perfume on, a lot of creams on the skin.

[00:16:02] Aaron Goodman: Yeah, it’s very dangerous. And the potential for others, including young children, to develop illness, chronic illness—chemical intolerance—MCS is there if we don’t minimize the production and use of products.

[00:16:16] Gertrud Morlock: It would be good to minimize or reduce the consumption of such products, but maybe the companies would not do so.

[00:16:25] Aaron Goodman: All of us know that essential oils are also not safe, but they’re often marketed and spoken about as if they’re a safer alternative. But many of us have a real hard time with essential oils. Well, do you know anything about what is in essential oil that is not good for us?

[00:16:46] Gertrud Morlock: Yes. Also, in essential oils, we see some essential oils have ingredients that are also toxic. So it’s not only the petrol-based chemistry; it’s also mother nature that makes such things. Reduction would be really the best way, because nowadays we always want to have more intense fragrances and perfumes everywhere. It’s too much.

[00:17:11] Aaron Goodman: I really understand and I often long to just be in places where I can smell nature. I really miss the smell of nature. Another question comes to mind, Professor Morlock. We often see labels that say unscented, scent free, or fragrance free, and I think there’s a difference in some of these different terms. Obviously the terms will be different in German, but do you have a sense of what the best one may be to look for?

[00:17:41] Gertrud Morlock: What we saw in products that had such claims—it was… we had not studied all products—but it was a bit better, let’s say, that had the product that had such claims. So maybe it’s a good way to… to buy such products. Mm-hmm. But we need more data to be sure—

[00:18:03] Aaron Goodman: and there can be—yes, thank you—and there can be masking agents in some of these products, so the fragrance—

[00:18:24] Gertrud Morlock: sure. Yeah. Sure.

[00:18:28] Aaron Goodman: and this is all for the corporate interest, is that right? That these very wealthy, powerful corporations are making a lot of money using these trade secrets? Is that how you see it? Is that their interest—

[00:18:39] Gertrud Morlock: companies want to make ring for sure. That’s their main goal.

[00:18:58] Aaron Goodman: Over the course of your career, have you seen more and more potent products come on the market? Are you seeing scientifically increased potency?

[00:18:58] Gertrud Morlock: I have not evaluated this, but based on what I have noticed as a scientist, I would say clearly yes—more and more fragrances and perfumes, and the companies that produce fragrances are increasing. That is what I really noticed. I think it’s not the right direction.

[00:19:06] Aaron Goodman: Is there anything else you’d like to share with listeners who… who have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and chemical intolerance and think a lot about fragrance?

[00:19:26] Gertrud Morlock: I am so sorry for these people who suffer in that way, and I think it’s a good way to reduce that compounds. I mean, you do it already, so it’s the right way, I think, to cope with environment that is full of fragrances and scents. Yeah.

[00:19:26] Aaron Goodman: Thank you so much, Professor Morlock, for taking time. You’ve been listening to The Chemical Sensitivity Podcast. I’m the host and podcast creator Aaron Goodman. The Chemical Sensitivity Podcast is by and for the MCS community. The podcast is generously supported by the Marilyn Brachman Hoffman Foundation and listeners like you.
 If you wish to support the podcast, please visit chemicalsensitivitypodcast.org. Your support will help us continue making the podcast available and creating greater awareness about MCS. To learn more about The Chemical Sensitivity Podcast, follow the podcast on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and TikTok, and as always, you can reach me at aaron@chemicalsensitivitypodcast.org.
 There’s one more thing. Wendy Kiley is someone many of us know. Wendy has lived with debilitating MCS for decades. She has also devoted her life to researching and sharing vital information about the illness. Wendy recently lost access to her Facebook account. She needs our help to get critical and non-toxic dental care.

Please find a link to Wendy’s GoFundMe page on the podcast’s social media sites and in the show notes, and please consider contributing to support Wendy. Thanks for listening. 

The Chemical Sensitivity Podcast and its associated website are the work of Aaron Goodman and made possible with funds from the Marilyn Brachman Hoffman Foundation, supporting efforts to educate and inform physicians, scientists, and the public about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. The content, opinions, findings, statements, and recommendations expressed in this Chemical Sensitivity Podcast and associated website do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of its sponsors.