Kate Grenville had always associated perfume with elegance and beauty.
Then the headaches started. Like perhaps a quarter of the population,
Grenville reacts badly to the artificial fragrances around us: other
people's perfumes and all those scented cosmetics, cleaning products and
air fresheners.
On a book tour in 2015, dogged by ill health, she started wondering:
what's in fragrance? Who tests it for safety? What does it do to people?
The more Grenville investigated, the more she felt this was a story that
should be told. The chemicals in fragrance can be linked not only to
short-term problems like headaches and asthma but to long-term ones like
hormone disruption and cancer. Yet products can be released onto the
market without testing. They're regulated only by the same people who
make and sell them. And the ingredients don't even have to be named on
the label.
This audiobook is based on careful research into the science of scent
and the power of the fragrance industry. But, as you'd expect from an
acclaimed novelist, it's also accessible and personal. The Case Against
Fragrance will make you see - and smell - the world differently.
