Posted on 11/28/2008 3:50:26 PM PST by Oyarsa
DETROIT—A federal judge says a Detroit city employee can proceed with a civil suit claiming she couldn't work because of a co-worker's strong perfume. The Detroit News says U.S. District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff determined Susan McBride has a potential claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The city is asking to have the suit dismissed.
McBride says she's severely sensitive to perfumes and other cosmetics. She says the perfume worn by a co-worker in the city's Planning Department made it difficult for her to breathe.
She says the co-worker also used a plugged in room deodorizer.
The suit says the co-worker later agreed to stop using the room deodorizer but kept using perfume.
(Excerpt) Read more at denverpost.com ...
Wow, am I glad to find y’all on this forum! Obviously, I’m not happy that you suffer from the same triggers I do, but at least I know I’m not alone here.
Coincidentally, I just got home from picking up my Imitrex (injections) at Walgreen’s. Five little vials of serum. $440. My insurance picks up 75% of it, but that’s still $110 out of my pocket. I have figured out that I can extend one vial to treat two headaches if I only draw out half the serum. I do keep the pills around and try to address the migraines with those first, but about 50% of the time, they don’t stay down. And how much good is a pill going to do you if you can’t keep it down?! The best thing about the injections is that you get almost instant relief (within 10 minutes for me). The pills can take up to two hours.
It’s disconcerting to read some of the posts here. metmom summarized it best when she said that if people were personally considerate, there wouldn’t be any need for such lawsuits.
One idiot said people should stay home if they didn’t like the fact that others wear fragrances. As conservatives, we don’t cotton to the idea of going on the dole, but maybe the FReepers who see this as a rights thing instead of a health thing would be willing to pitch in and pay us a salary to stay home.
Then there was another goofball who said something about needing some proof that fragrances triggered an actual health issue. I would be more than happy to throw up on his/her desk on my way out the door to go home to give myself an injection.
They’re so self absorbed that they believe that people like us don’t like people’s perfumes. Their knee-jerk reactions dull their reading skills. Y’all have said how much you miss being able to wear fragrances. I know what you mean. I was brokenhearted the day I learned that fragrances — mine included — were migraine triggers for me.
There are a couple of people at work I have to steer clear of. The worst offender is ... you guessed it. A guy! Gad! He reeks. But as someone said earlier, it’s not just the amount of fragrance someone is wearing. It’s the formula. If it’s something that triggers a migraine, it only takes a small amount.
Like some of you, I can no long enjoy my wood-burning fireplace. When I take my dogs outside in the winter, I have to put some kind of filter over my face to keep from breathing in the smoke from neighbors’ fireplaces. Any kind of tobacco smoke is a killer for me — even the aura that stays on a smoker after they’ve had a smoke outside.
Everytime I leave the house, I have to weigh the risks. There is much I don’t get to participate in because I need to stay as healthy as possible to be able to show up for work every day. Unfortunately, I have seen the selfish, me-first side of too many individuals who don’t give a fig about people’s suffering. Then there are others who are so understanding and accommodating, it could make you cry.
I got a little long winded, but I just wanted to say that I understand y’all. I wish others did, too. :(
I wear Rapture; it’s more of a subtle scent. I used to like White Shoulders and Taboo as well.
There was a period of time, I couldn’t leave the house without a charcoal filter mask...I would start to choke on the fumes of certain chemicals, in quite small amounts. My throat would constrict to the point I could hardly breath and I then began to cough.
It is absolutely no fun to go through chemical sensitivity.
We found out finally what was happening to me, and was able to deal with it, but I still have some chemical sensitivities. Masks at times, still, and avoidance and learning to deal more effectively with throat constriction gave me back some freedom.
People who haven’t dealt with chemical sensitvity shouldn’t make light of it.
Thanks for the ping!
I know exactly what you mean. I have no idea why companies think that everything has to have a scent that overpowers everything else. There is one certain kind of flower that really bothers me. I stopped by the florist one time and bought an arrangement to take to my daughter. Well, whatever those things were, we both had trouble with them. I finally took the vase and flowers out to the nurses’ station and said, “hey, you can have these, they do not like us”. I even have to check the shampoo for smells. I look funny going down the aisle opening first one and then the next one trying to find one that would not make me ill. It is no fun having any kind of respiratory problem. It is very frustrating since just about every company out there seems to be on if it smells so loud it can be smelled all over the house, then it must be better!
Well, heck, I love perfume but it hates me with a passion and I simply can not understand why. What did I do to it to make it hate me so much?????
Oh! Forgot one little but important item. When I am around perfumery stuff, then it causes my ears to stop up and guess what that means. Ear infections which I have right now. Believe me, they are no fun and I can understand why babies cry so much when they have them, and for some character on here to tell me to stay home, forget it buster. I do not go out very much as it is and I refuse to stay home from something I enjoy as much as I do choir practice although my “singing” leaves a lot to be desired. I have a 2007 Honda Accord which I bought about April or May of last year. It has less than 5,000 miles on it because I stay home so much now. If he/she was the one having to suffer through all of these medical problems due to someone wearing the whole bottle of perfume, then they would have an attitude adjustment. Right now, I have a severe cold which started as a chest cold but has gone to my head and ears. Believe me, when I say I have entirely too much to do to have this illness caused by someone wearing too much perfume. I would like to have a new floor put down in the den and kitchen, dining room. I have to have a crack in the basement wall repaired, the patio needs redone, the roof needs a new one. I need new garage doors, exterior doors and storm doors. I would also like to have the plumbinb and wiring redone but none of that can be started when I feel like staying in bed all day plus I have all of these other problems like anemia, etc to worry about withoug adding a stupid cold to the mix.
I am sorry you have the same problem but it is nice to know what there are others like me out there in cyberspace. I do know there are others like me in choir because we do complain.
I do not know what brand of clothes detergent I am using right now, but I have to wash them,rinse them 2 times then dry them and still that scent lingers. Why can’t they just leave things alone? Not everyone wants their clothes to smell like a closed in club with too many people wearing all kinds of smells which is enough to gag a maggot.
Please do not get me wrong. This is not aimed at you but at the numbskulls who run companies who think they have to add chemicals to everything we use every day. There are enough in them already without adding more to the mix.
Just my $.02.
One of my coworkers was stuck on the other side of an outsourcing software bullpen. The kind where they bring people in where the toilet is a hole in the ground (don't ask what the bathrooms looked like after these people stood on the rims).
I'd go visit him and it smelled like a dead sweaty rhino. They started getting the hint after the cubicle border was a solid line of renuzit deoderizers to shield him from the smell.
But we're talking about someone who is actually suing a company....and probably for some very big bucks. It looks like a scam from this side of the street.
There is a huge difference between someone who applies a scent, and someone that bathes in it then drenches there clothing in perfume.
When you can smell them before you can see them it's to much
Thank you. Well said.
When you have health issues like ours, you do often feel like you’re alone, especially when you read the callous responses of those whose bodies can handle anything thrown at them. I’m so glad that they feel that I shouldn’t be allowed to have a life because it might interfere with theirs.
*If you don’t like it, stay home. * *sigh*
It’s enough to make you want to wish this on them....
My daughter has had mild migraines and I really feel for you after seeing what she goes through. My condolences.
I found lilies to be particularly irritating for allergies. When our church has them out for Easter, there’s a number of people who can’t go in the sanctuary.
Likewise your right to stink up the place with your odor,i(Personal or artificial) ends where my health and well being begin.
Anyone that is so selfish or oblivious to the discomfort that their odor is causing another deserves to be sued. When the scent is causing migraines and cluster headaches and the victim needs to take medication just to complete a day of work there is a problem.
I pick choice number 3, send em back to muzzie land (with out guns or bombs)
Was the perfume wearer a big woman? Big women are notorious for overdoing the perfume.
Not exactly,
a)She may not have been aware of the allergy before.
b)Allergies can develop over a period of time.
This may be an allergy to a scent she never encountered before
Longer article in another paper:
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081127/METRO/811270375
This one has a whopper of a claim...LOL
“”””But Zatkoff, who sits in Port Huron, found that McBride’s difficulty breathing as a result of her co-worker’s perfume does present a potential claim under the federal law designed to protect the disabled from discrimination in public places and the workplace. He dismissed McBride’s claims that her chemical sensitivity also impairs her ability to shop for detergents, speak, interact with others, and reproduce.”””
I don't like the way some people look, or dress or what they say when they talk.
I live with it.
I actually feel sick to my stomach when I smell the breath of someone who smokes cigarettes and drinks coffee.
Do you think they will stop doing these things when I tell them how sick it makes me feel.
Of course not. I would be lucky not to get punched in the nose.
There will be no way you can stop everyone around you from wearing artificial scents. Even some shampoos put off a very loud odor. Are you going to tell them to stop washing their hair.
Sorry, this is a personal rights issue. You have the right to move away from these people that offend you and they have a right to smell the way they want.
I noticed that, too.
I find it very interesting and more than a bit hypocritical that those who vocalize most about their rights to do what they want, when they want, and nobody can tell them what to do, are the very ones who don't have a problem telling others what to do (stay home if I *don't like it*)
Not liking it has nothing to do with it. If it were just a matter of preference, that would be the option.
But where does the guy who is able to live life to the fullest and enjoy himself everywhere he goes with no problems get off telling others that if what HE does bothers them they get to just stay home and suck it up?
Those of us who suffer have jobs to go to, doctor appointments, shopping, banking, bill paying, etc. Who's going to do that for us? The guy who's blowing me off and free to go anywhere he wants? I don't see that happening.
It's rights for me but not for thee. And then they wonder why people resort to lawsuits to push back.
Clueless......
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