The deodorants, perfumes and soaps that keep us smelling good are fouling the air with a harmful type of pollution - at levels as high as emissions from today's cars and trucks.

That's the surprising finding of a study published in the journal Science. Researchers found that petroleum-based chemicals used in perfumes, paints and other consumer products can, taken together, emit as much air pollution in the form of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, as motor vehicles do.