BPAL oils: affect on health

June 18, 2009 11:38 PM

Are perfume oils (from BPAL specifically) hazardous to health? For my own and pet snake's who might be exposed as he lives in my room.
posted by Yasuo to Health & Fitness (3 answers total)

I'm not sure about snakes, but I found out that essential oils are very toxic to cats. I don't imagine that you have a cat, but maybe you do. I couldn't find anything that said snakes/reptiles are sensitive to essential oils in the same way, though.
posted by so_gracefully at 12:00 AM on June 19, 2009

I have BPAL oils and they haven't affected me, though you may have to watch for allergies. Can't tell you anything about snakes, sorry.
posted by divabat at 12:28 AM on June 19, 2009

Best answer: If you email BPAL, they're pretty good about answering. By 'exposed', do you mean by physical contact with you, or just the smell, or by accessing the oils? I can't imagine physical contact with them is a great idea for a snake, and I don't think they're meant to be ingested by anything. Also, allergies are a possibility, and certain essential oils (like citrus) can lead to photosensitivity, but it's really going to be a component-by-component issue, unless you've a very low bar set for 'hazardous'.

There is a BPAL forum thread about allergies [visible only if you're logged in], which is handy if you find a problem oil. Just on casual web searching, this patent-holder certainly thinks specific essential oils are repellant to snakes.
posted by carbide at 4:44 AM on June 19, 2009 [1 favorite]