Posted on 03/10/2008 2:53:28 PM PDT by kiriath_jearim
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Those all-over body sprays that promise to turn teenage boys into babe magnets? Instead of attracting girls, they could be making them sick.
A Minnesota lawmaker proposed a bill Monday urging a fragrance-free educational campaign to discourage students from dousing themselves in scents that aggravate classmates with asthma and other health problems.
Odors that fill hallways come mostly from boys who douse themselves in body sprays like Axe, said Mikolai Altenberg, a senior at Minneapolis South High School. He said the smell is "indescribable" and unavoidable.
"You can smell it from 10 feet away," Altenberg said. "Mostly it's just guys who just think that putting Axe all over them is a substitute for showering."
Rep. Karen Clark, a Democrat, first proposed banning fragrances in Minneapolis schools, one of the state's largest school districts. The bill she introduced Monday scales that back to an awareness campaign in Minneapolis and in other districts that volunteer. The campaign could include letters to parents, fact sheets, signs in schools, e- mail and Web sites.
One in eight Minneapolis students has asthma, and school nurses have treated students for wheezing and headaches brought on by the fragrances wafting from classmates, said Mary Heiman, a nursing service manager who runs the district's asthma program.
An awareness campaign would mirror the approach of policies at the University of Minnesota's Disability Services office and in a recent version of the Minneapolis teachers contract.
If the awareness campaign works, it could be expanded, Clark said.
A trade group for toiletry makers, the Personal Care Products Council in Washington, said it doesn't oppose fragrance policies as long as they're voluntary.
"We really don't think it's a good idea to legislate personal hygiene," said John Hurson, the group's head of government affairs.
Rhode Island and Massachusetts are the only other states where lawmakers have proposed fragrance-free bills in the past two years, Hurson said.
I think they are. I never wear them any more, and it surprises me when I smell it on someone else. At least here in Houston. Tell you though, when all the New Orleans people came over after Katrina (not so much the refurgees, regular people), I started smelling it on them and it smelled very foreign and weird.
But, unlike a SMOKER, what are they going to do about it? It can’t be washed off.
Ruling that they can't keep kids off the team just because they don't know how to swim?
Really, If I had heard this on the radio instead of read it, I would have assumed they meant the Legislator wanted (common) sense free schools, and figured they were well on the way already.
Praise band - no one makes a big deal over scents in that group. We aren’t all crammed together. Scents were forbidden in our choir because the, ahem, older ladies would really douse themselves.
Well there is that. Still, I’ve found scents to be more bothersome at a time when I’m trying to sing than they would otherwise be.
And I would hope that if people realized that the scent caused you a problem they would refrain from wearing any. However, I was amazed that our choir had to be told repeatedly not to wear perfume for concerts because one or two people refused to stop. I think at least one person even quit the choir over it.
MN: Lawmaker Wants Scent-Free Schools
Why not? They have already created education-free schools.
Used to be scents were drowned out by tobacco smoke.
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Those were the days!
Jr High School is one of the last places left where you can do stupid stuff and not suffer for it the rest of your life. Go back and look at your Jr. High yearbook. This is the reason we have Jr. High. there too big and smelly ( with or with out help from a spray can) to put in grade school and too stupid to put with all those smart high schoolers.
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No truer words were ever spoken. I have taught Jr. high off and on over the years. It is the most BIZARRE age!
HAsn’t been a big issue that I remember. Occasionally there will be a reminder that it is bad choir etiquette, that’s about it. We have heavy incense where I go now, that’s more of an annoyance than the individual perfume. Last place I went the Priest wanted to cense the choir. We were like, no thanks.
Heh! Lived a half block from Minneapolis South for 20 years. This does not surprise me.
Bathing or Axe? Hmmm....choices.
multi-ping
Teenaged guys love it. Girls don’t.
My kids talk about wearing fragrances. Girls put on all kinds of smell good stuff that THEY like to attract guys. They think the guys will like it, too. Not necessarily.
Problem is, guys really do like Axe. If they met a girl wearing Axe, they’d think she was the hottest thing to come down the pike, because she’s wearing something THEY like, not something girls like.
If the girls want to attract guys, they need to find out what guys like.
And the bad news is, girls, it’s AXE.
ping
But what you get when you mix really bad cologne with truly bad B.O. — that is truly devastating!
People are just more sensitive.
Tobacco smoke has been banned everywhere. It was an effective antigen.
Yes, they use synthetic substances now that many people are sensitive to. I know I am! Headaches, dizziness, even breathing problems, all from those nice-smelling perfumes and candles.
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