Is it true?

[Marijn]

Recent adverts for air fresheners are claiming that the spray can neutralise smells rather than mask them. How is it possible to un-do a smell, or destroy it, or whatever? I think air fresheners can only mask the smell. Or am I wrong?

[unigirl]

Let me begin, by saying I'm no expert on this, but I can give you some thoughts.

To begin with, if these products are so effective, why do almost all of them contain some form of deoderising agent and/or perfume? The manufacturer's go out of their way to convince us that these are not "odour masking" products, but how can that be so if the product contains even a minimal quantity of perfume?

I've found this website which gives a truly perplexing explanation of how one of these these products is claimed to work although it's not packaged as a trigger spray:

http://pure4sure.com/faq_en.htm

To begin with, I'll stick my neck out here as a university science student and tell you that I know of nothing that could react between " malodours" and the advertised product that could "form clusters of molecules that settles to the ground or statically bonds to surfaces and start a biodegrading process". Neither clusters of molecules nor molecules don't biodegade because they settle on the ground.

It's also a bit strange that this product seems to be innefective in binding to "spores" as they put it, which are considerably larger than molecules of malodorous chemicals. Furthermore, the very fact that the manufacturer seems to point out that the smell will return unless the source of the malodour such as the horribly stinky mercaptans are eliminated, seems to indicate that their products are far from perfectt and limited in performance.

[MatydaLover]

If you value your health, bank balance and cleanliness of your home, then open a window.

Unigirl's clarification of how they work sounds frightful. As they say, "fresh air's free".

[Marijn]

Thank you Unigirl and Matydalover. How they work sounds confusing, complicated and off-putting. A particular thank you to Unigirl for the research.

[jno]

if opening a window's too cold, even at this time of year, strike a match and burn up the odours. Works a treat in loos.

[Marijn]

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