Tree Fresheners: Don't Smoke and Smell
If you use a tree-shaped car freshener, you either suffer from an overdeveloped sense of irony (fuzzy dice not good enough?), share your motor with malodorous mates, or conduct mass murderer in the grand style of the feature film "Se7en.". And if you're a smoker who uses a dangly car freshener to mask your habit, man, are you living dangerously. According to the German blog Autogazette, the head of the German association of Ear, Nose and Throat Doctors, warns that drivers who smoke multiply their chance of developing cancer if they use a car freshener. "The gases of those 'friendly imitation trees' combine with particulates from tobacco smoke," Michael Jaumann asserts. "Together, they are much more inclined to deposit themselves in the human body." Not without reason are deaths from cancer of the throat and the mouth on the increase for German males, says Jaumann. He did not specify whether the "crowns" so popular among Euro cabbies were also toxic, but you just know they are.
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Oh well, one less tree for me to "hug".
There's more bad news:
"The September study by the Natural Resources Defense Council assessed 14 of the most popular air freshener brands and found that 12 contained phthalates, chemicals that can cause hormonal abnormalities, birth defects and reproductive problems. [...] Frequent contact with phthalates can cause cancer, affect fertility, and decrease testosterone and sperm levels in infants, possibly resulting in malformed sex organs. Solomon said the chemicals usually are found in paints, cosmetics and nail polishes and are added to air fresheners to carry the scent and keep it suspended in the air. "