Hong Kong watchdog finds fragrance allergens in 12 laundry scent boosters

Hong Kong’s Consumer Council has found fragrance allergens in 12 laundry scent boosters and a chemical compound that could affect marine ecosystems in four of the products, calling on authorities to assess the need for labelling rules.

The watchdog said on Friday it had tested the 12 “in-wash” products priced between HK$38 and HK$179 per bottle, including six that claimed to have fabric softening properties.

It found all 12 contained fragrance allergens, with amounts ranging from 0.0023 per cent to 0.672 per cent. One product had only a single type of allergen, while the remaining 11 had three to eight types.

Victor Lam Hoi-cheung, chairman of the council’s publicity and community relations committee, said the city had no laws requiring household cleaning and laundry product labels to alert consumers to the presence of fragrance allergens.

He suggested authorities consider the need to regulate the products, citing the European Union’s requirements for products containing any of 26 fragrance allergens at concentrations exceeding 0.01% to be labelled to alert consumers.

“More than 80 per cent of the [products] were detected to have specific fragrance allergens at concentrations exceeding 0.01 per cent, reaching the level set out in EU’s labelling requirement,” he said.