Posted on 03/14/2010 5:20:55 PM PDT by JoeProBono
DETROIT, - City officials in Detroit say workers at three city buildings will soon have to monitor their scents or face possible warnings.
The Detroit News said Sunday that placards will be put up in the three Detroit buildings detailing the new guidelines on employees' use of such scented items as cologne or perfume.
The notices due at the Cadillac Square Building, Coleman A. Young Municipal Center and First National Building will also ask employees to refrain from using air fresheners and scented candles while on the job.
The new regulations are the result of the city's settlement of a 2008 lawsuit filed by a city planner, who claimed she had breathing sensitivity due to a co-worker's perfume.
Attorney Ann Curry Thompson, who represents city planner Susan McBride, said her client's lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act could prove beneficial to others, the report said.
"It's unique. I think it should be used as a model for other people who are having similar problems," Thompson told the News.
I have asthma as well, and perfumes and fragrences are a trigger. Somebody is putting something into the air, and by extension, into your body without knowing what is in the perfume and the effect it has on you. Essence of Rude if you ask me.
Patchouli oil... wear that around me and I’m likely to insult you, at the very least.
A little Bay Rum or Old Spice is fine, bet this AXE stuff is just bunk.
I work around someone that is being treated for low testostrone. The smell of the drug he rubs on his skin is really strong and lingers for quite some time. I don't see how Detroit could ban something like that..
All the Avon Ladies will be out of work!
A "city planner" in Detroit. Hmm. Why do I think someone's perfume is the least of this idiot's problems?
As much as I love my son, when he was living at home with us, he was using this powerfully scented soap or cologne that used to gag me and start up my allergies. When he and I were going anywhere together, I’d ask him to refrain from using it or I wouldn’t sit next to him. Strong perfumey scents do not belong in places where people are close together, such as in Church. People with asthma must have a really hard time with this.
On the other hand, I don’t think the government has any place regulating this.
ASTHMA AND FRAGRANCE CHEMICALS
Toluene was detected in every fragrance sample collected by the Environmental Protection Agency for a report in 1991: “Toluene was most abundant in the auto parts store, as well as the fragrance sections of the department store.”
Toluene not only triggers asthma attacks - it is known to cause asthma in previously healthy people.
According to “Air Currents”, publication of Allen and Handsbury’s Respiratory Institute, division of Glaxo, Inc., asthma has increased in the past decade by 31%, and in the same period asthma deaths have increased by 31%. Women and those over 65 suffer the highest death rate for asthma. 72% of asthma patients in a study have adverse reactions to perfumes; i.e., pulmonary function tests dropping anywhere between 18% and 58% below baseline (from “Affects of Odors in Asthma,” Chang Shim, MD and M. Henry Williams, MD, American Journal of Medicine, January, 1986 Vol. 80)
Toluene-laced fragrance industry chemical products have become increasingly pervasive in the last ten years - used not only in perfumes, but also in furniture wax, tires, plastic garbage bags, inks, hairgel, hairspray, and kitty litter. A Danish toxicological journal, “Ugeskr Laegar”, Vol 153, ISS 13, 1991, p. 939-40, found perfume in kitty litter to be the cause of asthma in humans.
From: Candida Research and Information Foundation, Perfume Survey, Winter 1989-90 No agency regulates the fragrance industry. According to John Baily, Phd, Director, Colors and Cosmetics, FDA, "The fragrance and cosmetic industry is the least-regulated industry. There is no pre-clearing of chemicals with any agency." The FDA has suggested the best method "to protect sufferers from odor sensitivities might be to curtail odor exposures under specific circumstances through local or state regulatory action."
That stuff is the worst! My sister-in-law brought her boyfriend over, who would bathe in that stuff, he sat on one of our stuffed chairs and after that we had to trash the thing because it smelled so bad.
It’s amazing how all of us have survived for so long.
Is he a GOP congressman?
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