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summer's avatar

Wow Jamie, i truly had tears in my eyes reading your comment, becos i too seem to be the only one who notices THE STENCH, that horrible artificial smell of Tide and Bounce which now permeates EVERYTHING. For many years these chemical "fragrances" have given me migraines, but they really began ramping them up on the stench the last five or six years. Nowadays EVERYTHING reeks including books (new and used) that i buy online, and everything for sale in stores, including clothes and food. When you mention it to an employee, they have no idea what you're talking about. Back when the cooties were supposed to be able to jump 6 feet, i could smell the highly dangerous laundry stench on people from 20 feet away. Due to this, i don't do the shopping anymore, but like you i can smell it on my husband's clothes and hair as soon as he comes home. It is now on most of the fruit and veg, and the bags and plastic wrappers on food (including expensive organic stuff). It is even on cash from the bank. I live rurally, but have to go inside when the dryer vents from one of two nearby houses are outgassing the stench cos it travels on the breeze. And it's not just on soft absorbable items like fabrics. A couple of years ago i bought several vintage glass and metal osteriser blenders from different vendors on ebay, and all three came fully scented, and it did not disperse despite months (a year in one case) of sitting outside on our verandah. I recently bought a vintage travel iron which arrived with the same stench, which i can't scrub off or get rid of. New clothes, bedding etc. are permeated with the stench, and thrift store clothes have been washed in it too -- i had some thrift store clothes items hanging outdoors for a full year but never were fully free of it. It seems impossible to get rid of it on books with all their pages, even tho we use our vacuum extractor machine on them numerous times. If someone visits, the stench remains in the house and also on a furniture they happen to sit on. And the scent is stuck on my clothes and hair if they hug me. Once i was very high up on a hill with a sprawling plastic suburbia far below, and the stench was even up there, thanks to all the dryer vents.

For several years i constantly questioned why no one else seemed to be able to smell this, including my husband, who has now been trained to be able to smell it but can't always detect it. I gradually came to the realisation that most people really CAN'T smell it, and it is only becos i have a much more acute sense of smell that i can. I call this my inbuilt poison alert system, becos it instantly gives me a migraine, as do other toxic things like alcohol. These so-called "fragrances" (anything listed as fragrance is an artificial chemical btw) are hormone disregulators, eg. they mess up the hormonal system that runs and regulates all systems in our bodies, including WEIGHT and REPRODUCTION. When we breathe them in, they stick like glue to our nasal passages, bronchial tubes and lungs. I believe they were slowly introduced over the last decades as laundry products, becos people would become "immune" to them after a while, smothered as they are in clothes, pyjamas, sheets etc. 24/7, and in the case of children, ever since they were born (and add the toxic disposable diapers to the poisoning regime). Furthermore, decades of advertising propaganda has indoctrinated everyone to think that this is the smell of "clean clothes", which it is NOT! Becos synthetic fabrics collect and build up static electricity that in itself is very harmful to the body, they could then invent "dryer sheets" in order to toxify everything in the dryer (whatever happened to drying clothes outside???? Not possible in apts., and now forbidden by most strata housing rules). The dryer sheets then saturate the static artificial clothes and bedding in The Stench. And of course "air fresheners" for cars and homes, and yes even "scented" candles. And how about scented toilet paper and tissues? After years of preparation so that most people would no longer detect them, they have now moved into blatantly poisoning everything with this same toxic smell, and hardly anyone notices. And i'll just mention that one of the "symptoms" of covid/radiation poisoning is the loss of smell and taste, sometimes permanently -- do you think this is an accident? So that's my theory about the Stench, formed from my own experience.

I am not sure how this toxin is added to things like books (even used books) and cash and packaging etc. but i suspect it is sprayed in warehouses under the guise of "hand sanitizers" or "germ/virus killers". My husband reports that where the big overhead vents are in the big box stores, the items below are the stinkiest, so maybe some kind of "sanitizer" is put into the air filtration systems. For those of us with the acute sense of smell, there is nowhere to escape to these days. And for those without an acute sense of smell, you have no idea what you are breathing in and even ingesting in this regard. Many thanks to you Jamie for bringing up this enormously important issue, and i can't tell you how happy i am to hear that i am not some weirdo for having the acute and protective sense of smell that all of us come equipped with.

And btw, if you're wondering how people washed their clothes before the advent of Tide, Bounce and co., they used washing soda and/or another salt called borax, the latter being a whole other rabbit hole to get into (it actually cures arthritis, so of course has been vilified as poison). And as pointed out, vinegar makes an excellent rinse. The same for hair -- baking soda for washing, apple cider vinegar for rinsing. Cleaning products, ditto -- if washing soda won't get something clean, vinegar will -- eg. nature provides us with both ends of the alkaline/acid scale.

This is a very revealing, poignant and well done documentary made in 2012 by a man whose young wife died of cancer. When she became sick he started researching a number of product ingredients including "fragrance" and stumbled into a terrifying completely unregulated world that also includes "fire retardants", body products and cleaning products. If you are concerned about the many ways we are being poisoned, i highly recommend this film:

https://is.gd/STINK

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Nina's avatar

I have the same issue, including the husband who comes back from town smelling weird and artificial after shopping. I can't use most bedsheets and towels in Airbnbs and I've returned books that smell perfumey. I hug some people and their horrible toxic scents stick to my body and clothes and I smell them on me all day. I can't stand to be in taxis with 'air fresheners' and I travel with my own dish soap, soap, sheets etc... The worst thing is, other people totally don't get it!

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summer's avatar

We seem to be a small breed of human who actually have our sense of smell intact. I'm with you about travelling, can't stay in a room with the stench, let alone use towels or sleep on bedding with it. Yet many people expect that smell as meaning that everything is "fresh and clean"!!!!! Or else are so immune to the smell that they don't notice at all. At least it is comforting to know that i'm not alone in this anomaly.

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Roland Wehr's avatar

These toxic stenches are so common. Have you ever heard a new car owner say how much they LOVE their new car smell.

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summer's avatar

Yeh, you can even buy "air fresheners" with "new car scent" -- YUCK YUCK YUCK!!! And don't get me started on what they treat new carpets with.........

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vejjiejamie's avatar

summer, what a BEAUTIFUL name and i cried when i read your reply too, we should be friends in real life, i sooooooo feel your pain, its getting so out of control, i dont know what i am going to do about it, i'm afraid there is nothing, i'm afraid there is no escape. i regretfully live in a suburban neighborhood where the houses are packed right on top of each other in flouriduh and we cant make a move but honestly based on what i'm observing and what you shared, i don't think there's anywhere i could go 💔 i was at this outdoor event in st. pete, it shouldve been healing and peaceful but it wasnt, the condos across the street from this beautiful outdoor space RUINED my time in nature WITH THE STENCH and so did the phony bologny people at the event and i was the ONLY one who was commenting anout the STENCH!!!! i planned to stay the night with one of my old best girlfriends, well i took the couch and she brought me down some sheets, pillow, and a blanket, i didnt want to taint my own stuff so i didnt bring anything i cared about, well i didnt sleep ONE WINK, the toxicity was OVERWHELMING, i felt out of my mind, it was BIZARRE, i had to throw my clothes away when i returned home, she has two YOUNG children, i dont know how anyone will be fertile in the future. i was a hairdresser/makeup artist for like 16-17 years, the toxins i breathed in and absorbed through my skin

😵MG, i remember working with product lines that were discontinued because they were KNOWN to cause brain cancer, do you know the shit i've put in my poor head?!?!?! i fasted for 21 days, water fasted, no food, back in 2018 and duuuuuude the rash that appeared on my head was the itchiest, gnarliest, red, fire, I MEAN ITCH!!!!! i've ever experienced, it took about a week to clear up, i was also doing enemas every other day, i havent touched those products since, well havent directly put them in or on my body, but now i dont have a choice, ITS EVERYWHERE I GOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

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summer's avatar

I'm with you, it often feels like i'm in prison due to the stench. Every public space is contaminated with it. My husband and i are planning to move to Mexico soon, and i sure hope i can escape it there, altho American products are commonly promoted and sold there. At least there are outdoor veggie markets everywhere. We are taking our own scent-free ten foot camping trailer with us to live in, it's 40 years old and has nothing in it to gas off. We even got pure latex rubber instead of foam for the cushions and mattress.

Wow that sounds like some detox! All cosmetic and skin care and hair care products are contaminated with toxic substances, and our skin is our largest organ. This poisoning campaign has been going on for decades. In my comment i wrote about natural hair and cleaning products.

I too feel SO sorry for babies and children, who are steeped in this stench 24/7, from the moment they are born. And that's after being exposed to cell phone and wifi radiation in utero. Will any of them be able to reproduce? It's all part of the grand genocide plan.........

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vejjiejamie's avatar

i am WELL AWARE OF THE PLAN and becoming more and more aware as the days go on, ready player1 anyone??? i hope you're move to mexico is positive and a much cleaner experience than you have had in the united states of TRASH. i envy you, i just want nature and animals and fruit. TAKE ME AWAY 😭😭😭😭😭 AND THE POOR POOR BABIES 💔💔💔💔💔

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Crixcyon's avatar

Walking down the isle at Walmart where all the detergents are is rather toxic. The smells are deathly strong.

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vejjiejamie's avatar

i can't do it, i can't even go NEAR that aisle!!!! and the produce all WREAKS of it, the toilet paper, the paper towels...

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