Alison Sykes
Alison Sykes has 16 years of experience working at RTI International, an independent, scientific research institute within their Innovation Advisory group. Much of Alison’s work has been for commercial clients in consumer products, food & beverage, agriculture, and health care industries performing market research and assessing technologies to help clients narrow in on technical options to solve challenging problems, including identifying potential alternatives to chemical of concern, searching for more sustainable materials for packaging solutions, and other sustainability related challenges. Additionally, she co-authored a white paper for US Consumer Product Safety Commission that identified uses of PFAS in consumer products.
Prior to joining RTI, Alison completed a year as a post- postdoctoral associate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering and completed her PhD at UNC-CH in inorganic chemistry.
Tuesday May 12
Joint Air Care & Cleaning Products Division Program
Fragrance & the Modern Consumer: Safety, Science, and Social Media
This session will examine how evolving science, regulatory pressure, and consumer perspectives are reshaping product development and post-market risk management, with a focus on fragrance.
As volatile organic compound (VOC) regulations continue to tighten across North America, manufacturers and fragrance houses are moving beyond ethanol- and propellant-dependent delivery systems toward fundamentally new fragrance architectures that preserve performance while reducing or eliminating VOC use and enabling new product formats and portfolio differentiation.
The session will then turn to a timely discussion on post-market surveillance in the age of social media where viral trends can transform isolated misuse patterns into widespread public health concerns overnight. Attendees will walk away with critical intake questions and best practices for adverse event documentation.
The session will close with a joint exploration of fragrance safety in consumer products, highlighting new research from the Research Institute for Fragrance Materials (RIFM) and how it is reaching consumers through educational media. Attendees will also participate in a demonstration illustrating real-world exposure to fragrance ingredients in scented products.
Speakers:
Danielle Botelho, The Research Institute for Fragrance Materials (RIFM)
Ashley Brown, Clinical Toxicology Manager and Senior Clinical Toxicologist, SafetyCall International, LLC
Alison Sykes, Innovation Advisor, RTI International