Fabric Softener - A Conspiracy?

Personally, I don't use the stuff. I don't like the smell, I don't like the way clothes feel, I don't like the way I ITCH after using it.

When people give me clothes to use in my quilting, they go straight into the washer for a very long scrubbing to get as much of the stuff off as possible.

Today, I did some cleaning in my mom's room while she's in Baltimore awaiting a surgical procedure. She likes her curtains to have fabric softener on them to dry wrinkle free right on the rod - as well as to "smell good". I don't argue that clean curtains smell incredibly better than dusty, stale curtains. But I don't like the fabric softerner smell.

So - I got thinking about the stuff. How safe is it really? You can find all sorts of conspiracy theories about it out there - very extreme discussions. I decided to go for the guts of the information - the MSDS - Material Safety Data Sheets. Everything under the sun has one.

Ya know what? These companies that make both liquid and dryer sheet style fabric softeners aren't required to list the "inert" ingredients - such as the perfumes. So - I can understand folks yelling conspiracy.

The following is unconfirmed - I just can't find accurate ingredient lists for *any* fabric softener out there. So believe at your own risk:
http://shop.sixwise.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=155

Here again is a list of just some of the chemicals found in popular fabric softeners and dryer sheets:

Benzyl Acetate: Linked to pancreatic cancer
Benzyl Alcohol: Upper respiratory tract irritant
Ethanol: On the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Hazardous Waste list and can cause central nervous system disorders
A-Terpineol: Can cause respiratory problems, including fatal edema, and central nervous system damage
Ethyl Acetate: A narcotic on the EPA's Hazardous Waste list
Camphor: Causes central nervous system disorders
Chloroform: Neurotoxic, anesthetic and carcinogenic
Linalool: A narcotic that causes central nervous system disorders
Pentane: A chemical known to be harmful if inhaled

Here is the MSDS for Bounce Dryer Sheets (except their "Free" brand)
http://www.officedepot.com/pdf/msds/302830.pdf

What I found as "active" ingredients are as follows:

Fatty acids, C10-20 and C16-18- unsaturated, reaction products with triethanolamine, dimethyl sulfate-quaternized
Quaternary ammonium compound http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternary_ammonium_cation

Basically - those fatty acids are ammonia derived - not what you'd call "naturally occurring" substances. Between the fatty aspect blocking or insulating the fabric from static, the "charge" of the molecules help neutralize any static trying to be produced by all the friction.

Isopropyl alcohol = 2-Propanol - I'm assuming to keep the above from forming clumps in liquid, or sticking together between packaged sheets.

All companies state both active and inert ingredients are biodegradable (so is plastic, given enough time), and that are designed with environmental concerns in mind.

Now - given the chemicals that are found in polar bear fat and earthworms - I'm not going to be as confident in their statements as they'd like.

In conclusion

Why use fabric softeners? It's not like a woman wears a wool dress with a silk slip anymore. Why have these products compete with a perfume you actually LIKE?
Why waste the money?
Why make it so your clothes and towels can't absorb water - which is exactly what a fat will make any fabric do - repel water.
Why itch?
Why risk a fire in your dryer?
Why waste the energy to produce, ship, stock, use and then toss?

Dryer balls do the same work without all the negatives. AND they dry your clothes faster. No fabric softener can do that!
The packaging sucks, but at least it can be recycled...
http://www.asseenontv.com/prod-pages/dryer_balls.html

You can also order them in just about any catalog out there and I've seen them at Rite Aid. Can't vouch for any other store.