Front Matter

6 Introduction to Autism Spectrum Disorders

no farther than our own noses. It should be noted that as a result of a giant

loophole in the Federal Fair Packaging and Labeling Act of 1973 [7], fragrance

and cosmetics producers were explicitly exempted from having to enumerate

cosmetic ingredients on product labels. Fragrance concealment is not illegal

and is often used by the industry to hide from the public the full list of ingredi­

ents, even substances that can cause grave health problems. It is common prac­

tice for businesses to list the chemicals as simply “fragrance,” which may mean

that about half of the ingredients are never revealed to buyers. Even worse,

people who use cologne, synthetic fragrances, body spray, and other scented

cosmetics are blindly exposed to dangerous chemicals since the Food and Drug

Administration lacks authority to control mandates to manufacturers that

require testing of all synthetic chemicals in fragrances for safety before being

released to the public

We have shown that chemicals found in fragrances can be extremely harmful

for developing fetal brain cells (neuroblastoma cells: Figure 1.2).

When applied on the skin or sprayed, many chemicals from fragrances are

either absorbed or inhaled, and many of the chemicals damage fetal brain

cells [8–11]. Also, during pregnancy the use of fragrances and other cosmetics

may expose the growing fetus to diethyl phthalate (DEP), a common fra­

grance solvent that can cause abnormal development of reproductive organs

in infant males [11–28].The most commonly used fragrances contain thou­

sands of synthetic chemicals, many of them capable of changing the normal

pattern of a fetus’s brain development. In Figure 1.3, some of the harmful

chemicals are listed.

One may question why these synthetic chemicals have not affected adult

human brains and caused adults to get autism. As discussed below, in an

adult  brain, there is very little neural division going on. There are only two

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Perfume samples

Neg. control

4-NoPD

Sex and the city

Ralph lauren

Tommy bahama

Jodore

PiorBBW

Champ elysees

Guess

RosewoodPerry ellisEstee lauder

CBEBRE

Juicy coutureHeat-beyonce

LustD&G

Ralph lauren

Curve

Bodycology

HPO

Lola marc jacobsWhite diamond

Malachite

Victoria secret

BBWDAH

Vera wangChristia diorSkin mustGivenchy

Palmo picasoThe body shop

PassionBurberryDavidoff

Victoria secret

Gap

UnknownStress relief

Cytotoxicity

Cytotoxicity assay: Neuroblastoma cell line

Figure 1.2 Bar graph showing the cytotoxicity of various perfumes against

a neuroblastoma cell line. Source: Adapted from Ref. [10].