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There have been many bad things said about various air fresheners for birds. The reality is that these products do NOT remove anything from the air they simply cover up bad smells with the odours of the materials in the product.

I saw something interesting recently about various phthalate esters in some of these things. These seem to cause problems with ALL vertebrates because they are estrogens. That makes them a hazard not only for the birds but for us as well.

Humans are funny creatures. They get all excited about a few pollutants, and then ignore others that are just as bad or worse than ones that cause all the excitement. Another is bisphenol-A from polycarbonates. This is an other powerful estrogen, in fact it was originally developed as a pharmaceutical, and then used to make polycarbonate plastics. They make high impact strength bottles from this. This is a horrible thing to do both for birds and for us.

For an air freshener nothing is better than an open window! (If the climate permit!)

The sensible thing seems to be to use no air fresheners either around birds or elsewhere!

rpavlis2 wrote:... The sensible thing seems to be to use no air fresheners either around birds or elsewhere!

I'd dearly love for your good advice to put the cologne makers out of business, Robert!

Thanks, Paca

I hartily agree. Asthma sufferers and cologne do not mix well.
Gloria

Yup. Air fresheners are big no-no's.
If the house smells that bad, the people should just try better hygiene! Just kidding, but really, people are strange. There really isn't a need for fresheners. People just want to smell something fragrant when they walk into a room. I prefer scents of things cooking in the kitchen, but hey, that's just me.

Thank you for reminding us all how bad they are, Robert!

The new citrus scents that are in everything give me a headache...I would definitely prefer to smell a batch of chocolate chip cookies in the oven....

Cyndie, I know what you mean, some of those scents are so strong and offensive!
I have to say that your post made me want to make cookies or even brownies.
I love it when good scents like that fill the house.