Do You Work Around Synthetic Fragrance?
It’s totally happened. I’ve become that slightly-loony-bin person: the anti-fragrance zealot. I’m not talking about the wonderful scents we were gabbing about yesterday. And like S, I too occasionally miss a phthalate, especially when I’m longing for lasting power or smell the rare incredible synthetic perfume.
But last week I went to the mall, not my usual stomping ground. It seems like every day I become a little more sensitive: to sounds, to crowds, to gross displays of consumerism (there’s so much stuff at the mall, man), but especially to synthetic scent. I honestly feel like a bit of an ass admitting this. I don’t want to sound precious, because we must live and function in the real world, and I know this is a high-class problem, quite literally, and it’s not like I have a chemical sensitivity. But, there it is. The whole experience made me kind of miserable. Then I started thinking of the people who work there.
Day in, day out, these mall employees have fragrance pumped at them from all sides: from Sephora to the Macy’s counter, from Neiman to Lush. It’s a serious assault on the senses, let alone on lungs and probably hormones. So without getting too activisty, I wanted to ask you: Is there synthetic fragrance in your work environment? And, if so, does it bother you? Have you complained?
Progress is slowly underway: You may recall that one woman actually won $100,000 settlement after suing her workplace for ignoring her chemical sensitivity to fragrance. Not surprisingly that company has since banned all fragrance use. That’s cool. I also noticed just the other day that someone’s work email footer read “this is fragrance free environment.”
As I was leaving the mall, I walked by Sephora. Having a momentary lapse of reason, I thought: Oh, I’ll just pop in and buy some waterproof mascara. Well, I couldn’t even last a minute! I walked in, got one whiff of that place and turned on my heels. Fragrance may force me to abandon my last dirty product at long last.
Ooh! I used to work at Bath and Body Works. The scents didn’t bother me, but my fragrance-sensitive boyfriend was up the creek.
Incidentally, I first read your book while working at BBW. Nearly all their products are dirty; it was hard to sell that stuff with a clean conscience.
The only issue I have currently at work is the Febreeze Air Effects in the bathroom….the boss LOVES it! :S That stuff just wafts….and lingers. But she knows I hate it so she shuts the door and turns on the fan. Heaven help me if I have to use the bathroom at any time later that day. I literally hold my breath….or try to.
At work every day for lunch someone covers my lunch. There is one woman who wears a very strong scent and is not appealing to be at all. When I return from lunch and she leaves the smell remains all around my desk. I try to wave the newspaper around to try to get the horrible, sneezy smell away. I am sure it looks a bit crazy, but I can not stand the smell.
I do work around synthetic fragance, and in a mall! Our company, a pioneer in green washing, does not let us use other fragances than the one we sell, and yet there are some girls in the store who do come in with their “stinks” on, and the headache is inevitable! I haven’t put up a formal complain, but it has been bothering everyone in the store too. And although I do work at a mall, I’m far away from Macy’s but right in front of Victoria’s secret, and those girls at times spray their perfumes and splashes everywhere and we end up stuck with those smells too!
Can’t wait to get out of there!
Ugh. I took my 13 yr old cousin to the mall after Christmas and when we walked into Nordstrom she said, “I love this smell.” Unfortunately all the mall smells leave me with a huge headache. Nice to know about the law suit–good to bring up if it’s ever an issue at work. As of now, my coworkers are considerate of my sensitivities.
Alexandra, I can relate. Especially when it comes to the synthetic fragrances.
Perfume I used to wear, I can no longer. I guess I’ve just become too sensitive
to the smells – and they really smell. People are allowed to wear fragrance
at work and sometimes it can REALLY be strong. They have asked people
to tone down on the fragrance but there are still a few. One girl hugged me
the other day because I did something for her and all I could smell was
her perfume for hours. Thanks for bringing this up.
I’m pretty sensitive, though not so much as a friend of mine who can barely go anywhere. I stay away from crowded public places as much as possible, largely because of the smells. I have to deal with it somewhat at work, like sometimes I’ll get stuck walking across campus behind a person carrying a cloud of synthetic scent. Or I’ll walk into the bathroom after someone has gone crazy with the hairspray. Thankfully there’s a lot of outdoors at my college and I can take an alternate route or hold my breath if I have to. It does make me angry – I don’t think I should have to get poisoned by synthetic scent to go to work (likewise with the people smoking). If it’s someone I’m working with directly and often, or a student in my class, I’ll say something and try to resolve the situation. But if it’s a temporary encounter, I’ll either deal or avoid.
One of the worst things for me lately is laundry smells. Out walking, running, or biking, even in my own neighborhood, there’s a total assault of laundry stench in the air. I’ll take a nice deep breath while out for some exercise and every so often get a choking lungful of gross stinky air. I’ve seriously considered asking people in my neighborhood to switch to unscented laundry products.
Same here! I start to hate synthetic fragrance. The only perfume I still like is the one my boyfriend used for our first date.
Ever since I stopped wearing synthetic fragrance, other people’s perfume/cologne smells so intensely strong. My nose must be more sensitive. Someone I work with even wears the same perfume I used to wear, and I can’t believe how strong it is! Basically, if I can’t see you, I don’t want to smell you.
I’m quite lucky, I don’t work with / near anyone who drowns in perfume. For years, though, most perfumes have made me gag and I always thought it was just that I was incredibly picky about what smells I liked and disliked (I disliked the majority). I once worked in an office alongside a girl who literally bathed in her perfume – she’d come back from lunch or a smoke break and spray herself head-to-toe. I thought I could get used to it but when I didn’t and she ignored my requests to at least do her spraying in the restrooms or outside I decided I would make gagging noises every time. (I’m not saying I was terribly mature…) It didn’t change her habit but I got my point across that I thought she was being unfair and that she really annoyed me. Luckily my boss agreed with me and he made sarcastic comments as well, so that eventually curbed her behaviour. I avoid anywhere that is overly perfumed (malls, perfume departments in stores) and I even stopped having a particular friend around to my flat because I found her perfume lingered a full day after she left – talk about overkill!
I agree! My biggest pet peeve is when people wearing strong perfume/cologne hold my daughter, and then her sweet little baby body smells like someone else! It’s amazing how long some of those lasts, even when it’s transferred automatically. I also hate the diapers my friend uses, because they have some sort of strong scent to them and her little babies smell like air freshener. :) I was just saying to my husband that I feel as if I’m much more sensitive now that we don’t use anything with synthetic scent.
Workplace pretty much scent-free except for some bathroom deodorizer used by cleaning crew that was strong enough to linger and bother.
And my scent-o-meter doesn’t let me get near a lot of stores these days with Abercrombie & Fitch as the top offender for me. I pity their employes that have to inhale their “signature scent” on a daily basis. And although there are companies dedicated to this business , whoever came up with the strategy that *marketing of smell* was a good idea may want to re-think it. It has escalated to awful levels.
The same goes for grocery shopping where I avoid the cleaning products aisle.. they have become too strong for me.
Anyway, I continue to be amazed on how mcuh my sense of smell has become more easily upset by strong scents and smells that I used to like or not even notice at all.
Is it weird that I am a lot more sensitive to those synthetic smells now than I was when I actually used those products? It’s kind of like my nose was deadened to how strong and awful the smells were at mall stores until I cut them out of my life…and now I can’t walk past a smelly store without getting a headache. Either I’m getting old (which…I can’t completely rule out), or I’m getting more sensitive to junk.
I do work in the mall in a clothing store which has recently begun spritzing (as far as I know the company did not spritz until this fall). This has become a huge pet peeve of mine. I have owned maybe two bottles of fragrance in my lifetime, and never experienced any major sensitivity to it (aside from slight headaches from someone else’s that was too strong, or store like bath and body works/candle stores), I have know many people who do have a sensitivity to it, so it irked me that we subject people to this without warning.
I work part time, but a few months after I started working here I noticed a rash on my hands and eventually on my face. It wasn’t anything major and got better/worse randomly, and I thought it was just dry skin for months. After I started working more during the holidays, it got a lot worse and I finally went to the dermatologist. I found out it was eczema, and she was fairly certain it was due to the fragrance, along with dust and other chemicals at work. I do have fairly sensitive skin, but this has just proved that I will most likely never wear fragrance. At work I have been fairly vocal about my concerns, politely pointing out the bad chemicals and mostly that it gives me a headache and makes my eczema break out. Thankfully my bosses are a lot more easygoing about spritzing the store than other stores may be (maybe a few times a week), but I am concerned about places like Abercrombie etc. that have it CONSTANTLY pumped into their workplace.
@Aleigh and everyone, I’m pretty much convinced at this point that there is a scientific explanation for this heightened sensitivity we’ve all experienced once we stop using synthetic fragrances. As with drugs—think alcohol or caffeine—we build up a tolerance with use/exposure. The way I see it, we’ve lost our tolerance for these toxins. Which is great! But also hard. Of course, this is just my theory, founded only on this mounting anecdotal evidence. :)
Once upon a time, synthetic fragrance didn’t bother me at all. Since throwing away my stash of hazardous perfumes (around two years ago), though, my nose has become increasingly sensitive. A recent trip to the mall with my grandmother left me with the worst headache of my life. I blame Victoria’s Secret. :-/
@nancy Abercrombie is the worst! I can smell that place all the way on the other side of the mall.
My last job was working in an art storage vault at a museum, and nobody was allowed to wear perfume because the scents can transfer to the artwork! Convenient for me. :) I do like perfume, but not offensive chemical fragrances.
For me it began over ten years ago when the Yankee candle store opened in our local mall. I went in with my mother and after five minutes had a migraine so overwhelming I had to stay huddled on a bench sipping iced tea and listening to Muzak the rest of the afternoon while my sisters and Mom shopped. I have steadily noticed an increasing problem in dealing with all synthetic fragrances. At this point I have to completely avoid the laundry and cleaning aisles in the supermarket, all department stores with beauty counters, and the like.
I’m lucky, like Rebecca, to work on a university campus which is fairly progressive and there are ways to avoid the synthetics but the cleaner my world gets the more sensitive I seem to become. I now notice, distinctly, the smell of the ink and toner of the copier a few feet away from my desk, and get headaches whenever our office receives shipments of new textbooks because of the glue used in bookbinding!
I’ve never been diagnosed with a sensitivity/allergy, but considering the crowd sourced wisdom here I highly doubt we are all under the same mass delusion. There MUST be a link between continued synthetic exposure and acquired tolerance.
I work at a home improvement wharehouse store and the one aisle that I hate is the cleaning supply aisle. I never realized how strong those chemicals are! Everytime I have to walk down that aisle the stink hits me like a wall. It makes me sad that they dont have any clean products here for cleaning, to the point that I bring my own to clean my desk. I also bring my own soap now too since that stuff in the bathroom is also pretty toxic and strong.
Wow, I am shocked to read that there are places that spritz without warning. While I tend to avoid the perfume counters, on the odd occasion I walk past I have never had anyone spritz me without my permission (which I never give) and I would probably totally freak out if that happened. I’m glad I haven’t had to pummel anyone who dared to spray without my say. ;P
I used to work at the Body Shop and now I work at a department store (makeup and fragrance counter).
I work 8 hour shifts and I am almost ALWAYS sneezy or I have a headache or throat-ache. You develop a tolerance to it, though. I remember in the time between the Body Shop and where I work now my nose was super sensitive.
Luckily I’m moving to photo development next month, so no more perfume for me!
Fortunately I currently work from home, so I don’t have to deal with constant exposure to synthetic fragrances. However, I completely understand. Not only do I consider myself to have a superhuman sense of smell, haha, I am convinced I have always had some sort of chemical/fragrant sensitivity.
I avoid the fragrance section of the mall or stores like the plague. It only takes one brisk walk through that area and I start to develop a full blown migraine and sometimes even nausea. Back in college, my one roommate couldn’t use her favorite hand lotion around me because the strong scent would immediately give me a headache. An even crazier incident was one day when my father picked me up in his car to go somewhere. The day before he had taken his female neighbor to the airport. She must have worn quite a bit of perfume because I was getting a headache 24+ hours after she was in the car! Just from the remnants!
I work in a hospital, the mecca of synthetics! My first few weeks, I was afraid I would have to quit due to the mega-printer in my office emitting horrid toner and, especially, new paper smells. And the antiseptic bathrooms? And the air “fresheners”? And sanitizer stations and cleaning products? With an alcohol-based “cleanser” on every desk? And that one random nurse gagging all who happened upon his patchouli wake? Ugh…
Sometimes I think I’m not being true to myself working there as I prefer a more natural existence. But I love what I do, even if it may be choking me into an exposure tolerance. One thing is for sure: outside of work, my sense of smell is heightened in nature and with tasting foods (including wine)! It’s amazing how our bodies compensate…
It’s not just perfume. Fabric softeners and laundry detergents have gotten so offensively strong. I am “scent”sitive and am always shocked at how cloying the fragrance from people’s clothes can be — and on my furniture! It all needs to get toned down. I mean, why should salad from the grocery store smell like laundry products?
Staying away from synthetic frangrances isn’t so easy… The manual and occasional spritzing has gone professional now. There is a number of companies that sell and market signature scents to all kinds of stores(to entice customers to stay longer for instance), night clubs(to mask bad odor such as cigarettes/alcohol or worst), hotels, banks, etc… Spritzing devices are installed directly into air conditioner ducts and set on timers. As fas as I know there isn’t a law that requires users to disclose the practice to customers..
I don’t like shaking hands with someone who has practically bathed in their perfume/cologne. It just stays on my hands, in spite of washing.
The bathroom at our main office has this fake coconut smell that drives me crazy and the soap smells the same way. I can smell that on my hands. I’ve started carrying Dr. B’s with me for hand washing.
I have a pet peeve with hotels that have a signature scent. After about the first hour it is really nerve-wrecking. Plus, my eyes get red and I start to get a slight headache, just enough to make me feel uncomfortable.
I am blessed enough to be a homemaker, so I can (and do!) control exactly what smells are in my home. Minus the catbox… but I can clean that promptly!
The downside is a heightened sensitivity. We went to the Houston Galleria to take gross advantage of some LEGO store coupons because we’re just really big kids, honestly. Without walking past any of the usual culprits, my nose was burning and itching fiercely before we left. We didn’t visit any other stores, we walked past three other shops and one kiosk, and none of them are scent branders. Additionally, I was extra fatigued for no reason. I’d eaten recently, slept well, hadn’t caffeinated or sugar crashed, and it was the middle of the day. No headache, but the sudden exhaustion…. Does anyone else experience that?
I just had a flashback to high school – one guy friend of mine wasn’t allowed in my house because he used so much Polo that you could smell it several days later. And that was just from coming in for a couple minutes to pick me up!
He once came by when my parents were out of town – they were gone for a week so I thought I was safe, but the first thing my mom said upon returning was “Chip was here, wasn’t he?”
I have to say, reading some of these comments has left me frustrated. Really, people? Gagging out loud because of someone’s perfume? Asking your neighbors to change to unscented laundry products? That’s incredibly rude. I’m a vegetarian and I don’t like the smell of meat cooking, but it would be ridiculous for me to tell my coworkers not to microwave their chicken leftovers or ask my neighbors not to make burgers on the grill! Face it, unless you never leave your own home, you are going to have to deal with the actions of those around you. It’s part of living in a society.
I agree that I hate the scent of some mall stores, that Yankee Candle leaves me dizzy, and many cleaning products smell disgusting to me. At my place of work, I often have to work with clients that smell like they’ve been bathing in perfume (or worse, cigarettes). But I deal with it as a consequence of living in a world with other people who have different preferences and opinions than me.
@Anne, I never actually asked my neighbors to switch laundry products – but I’ve seriously thought about it. That scented stuff is poison to me. I get headaches and mood changes with a single sniff. I should be able to at least sit in my own yard and not be poisoned. I look at it this way: I work with some toxic chemicals in my lab, and even though most of the stuff is considered “safe” under proper use conditions and aren’t the worst toxins out there, if I took a chemical out on campus and started sprinkling the stuff around, I think if would upset people that toxins were being put out there in their environment. Synthetic fragrances, like cigarette smoke, are not healthy for anybody, and there are lots of people who are sensitive. Neighbors grilling meat isn’t actually causing any human any harm, just maybe annoying their vegan neighbors. But some people are actually hurt by clouds of synthetic fragrance. Of course we all have to live together in this world and get along, and we can do so with consideration for the health of everyone. The most sensitive person is always the pain in the butt – usually that’s me, but even I can’t use many of my essential oil products around a particular friend. Yes, it drives me crazy sometimes! If I can make a fairly huge effort around my friend, I think all of us can make a moderate effort to keep our scents personal and not use so much synthetic fragrance that it can be smelled at a distance.
If one of my neighbour’s even dared to comment on my choices of product I’d knock their karma chakra and peace and love 8 ways from Sunday.
Ugh! There are olfactory offenders at my office. I just think it’s so rude for people to impose their fragrance on other people at the office. At work people have a designated place to sit and have no choice but to suck the nasty fumes. If someone where’s a little fragrance so you smell it when you are near them that’s acceptable. but I can smell people that are sitting a few desks away. I read somewhere that fragrance should make a statement, not an announcement. Sometimes I’m tempted to send HR EWG’s report on fragrance and try to have a fragrance banned at the office but I don’t plan to stay at my job much longer. The worst is when they decide to reapply and spritz it on at their desk. I can deal with people having onions or garlic for lunch more than the smell of perfume. For some reason women’s fragrances bother me much more than men’s fragrances.
After reading your book fragrance was the hardest thing to break away from but now I can’t tolerate fake smells at all. I think eventually stores will realize they are turning off customers with scents. Many people probably don’t shop in these stores because they’re allergic to fragrances. I can barely take Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Victoria’s Secret, or Sephora anymore.
I also notice that I can’t deal with fake tasting food anymore either; white flour, white sugar, fast food, etc… It just doesn’t taste very good anymore. The other day I bought something at the health food store and I didn’t have my glasses so I couldn’t read the ingredients. I was shakey afterwards so I read the ingredients when I got home and it had white sugar and glucose in it. I guess the fact that the ingredients were so small should have been a clue…
I work in a coffee shop, so I’m surrounded by the luscious non-synthetic scent of coffee all day. But I’m very sensitive to colognes and perfumes, and there are certain ones that can trip my asthma. I have certain customers that I literally have to hand off to someone else and then I go hide in the back until they leave.
I’m also a member of a large chorus, and we have a no-scented-products rule, which is nice. Except I *do* use shampoo that has a light scent to it and haven’t been able to find an effective shampoo or conditioner that is unscented. I don’t wash my hair every day so I try to time it so that I don’t have to wash my hair on a concert day, but sometimes that’s not always possible. If anyone can recommend a good unscented shampoo and conditioner for unruly, heat-treated, colored hair, I’d certainly welcome the suggestion!
Hi – have you tried Strange Invisible Perfumes? Amazing scents and experience in their store in Venice Beach… they are mostly organic, biodynamic at times and all natural. Having spent a bunch of time in there selecting a frangrance I was really impressed by their commitment to natural beauty and genuine love for fragrance….
@Deedee, I searched for a long time for a great unscented natural shampoo/conditioner, and I found it in the Revitalizing line from greenbodygreenplanet.com. Also, try coconut oil to condition. I have really thick crazy hair, and when I was still doing synthetic color letting coconut oil sit on my hair pre-shampoo worked wonders. I did this every few days at first, then as needed once I saw results. And the coconut has a smell but it’s not overwhelming. You can also get unscented coconut oil but it’s harder to find.
Holy crap, it is SO nice to read about all you other folks who are super sensitive to synthetic fragrances, too! My fiance every once in a while will put on a chemical-y product or deodorant and it drives me CRAZY!
I get horrible headaches from fragrances. Ugh!
Every doll baby I’ve bought for my girls had perfume infused into the plastic body. I remember the first one smelled like “rose”, and the black baby, disturbingly enough, smelled like tootsie rolls. I notice at the paint store, they sell “permanent air freshener” you can mix into your paint. Horrid.
Just read today about a bill that an state representative from NH may be sponsoring banning state employees – the ones that work in contact with public – from wearing any fragrance. This after a constituent approached this state representative sharing the fact that synthetic fragrances had the worst effect on her. Interesting, no?
I have been sick most of my life from the synthetic, toxic chemicals that are put in not only fragrances, but everyday personal care products, cosmetics, cleaning and laundry products. Anyone who has ever had a problem with cigarette, pipe or cigar smoke should understand what those of us who are sensitive to these products are going through. What is so sad is that just because some people are “sensitive” to these chemicals, doesn’t mean that everyone, including our children, aren’t being harmed by th! Every person should care what is being put in our products. Just because you can buy something in the United States, doesn’t mean it’s safe! I urge everyone to do some research into this problem. Our babies and children are actually being poisoned, their DNA is being changed, their brains are being effected and they are getting cancer at an alarming rate! Have any of you wondered why Autism is on such an alarming rise? Is this what we want for our children?! This isn’t something that is just an annoyance for some people as many people think, this is a serious health concern. Smoking bans have been put in place to protect people from the toxic chemicals in cigarettes. People have the right to poison themselves if they choose, but they do not have the right to poison others (except their children, which is another matter). I work for a large hospital system and am still amazed that employees have the right to poison their patients with the toxic chemicals they choose to use (isn’t it amazing that no one is regulating what employees can do to the babies and children in their care?). Instead of blaming each other for what we can and cannot do to each other, why don’t we get to the root of the problem and demand that companies stop putting toxic chemicals in the their products in the first place!! It is really so simpleI Educate yourselves on what toxic chemicals are used and what they do to the human body and then check the ingredients listed on your products. Keep in mind that thousands of toxic chemicals and carsinogens are used to make synthetic fragrances and that to protect companies secret formulas, they are NOT listed in the ingredients! Anyone who doesn’t care about their health or their families health will just ignore this and keep doing what they always have, but if anyone cares about themselves and the health of their loved ones, please do some research-this really is a matter of life and death.E Stop buying products containing fragrance and make life better for everyone.
I have been sick most of my life from the synthetic, toxic chemicals that are put in not only fragrances, but everyday personal care products, cosmetics, cleaning and laundry products. Anyone who has ever had a problem with cigarette, pipe or cigar smoke should understand what those of us who are sensitive to these products are going through. What is so sad is that just because some people are \sensitive\ to these chemicals, doesn’t mean that everyone, including our children, aren’t being harmed by them! Every person should care what is being put in our products and what we are putting on our skin and in our lungs. Just because you can buy something in the United States, doesn’t mean it’s safe! I urge everyone to do some research into this problem. Our babies and children are actually being poisoned, their DNA is being changed,their hormones disrupted, their brains are being effected and they are getting cancer at an alarming rate! Have any of you wondered why Autism is on such an alarming rise and why behavioral problems are more prevalent? Is this what we want for our children?! These chemicals interrupt all of our bodies systems causing all types of disease from obesity, lupus and cancer. This isn’t something that is just an annoyance for some people as many people think, this is a serious health concern. Smoking bans have been put in place to protect people from the toxic chemicals in cigarettes. People have the right to poison themselves if they choose, but they do not have the right to poison others (except their children, which is another matter). I work for a large hospital system and am still amazed that employees have the right to poison their patients with the toxic chemicals they choose to use (isn’t it amazing that no one is regulating what employees can do to the babies and children in their care?). Instead of blaming each other for what we can and cannot do to each other, why don’t we get to the root of the problem and demand that companies stop putting toxic chemicals in the their products in the first place!! It is really so simpleI Educate yourselves on which toxic chemicals are being used and what they do to the human body and then check the ingredients listed on your products. Keep in mind that thousands of toxic chemicals and carsinogens are used to make synthetic fragrances and that to protect companie’s secret formulas, they are NOT listed in the ingredients! Anyone who doesn’t care about their health or their families health will just ignore this and keep doing what they always have, but if anyone cares about themselves and the health of their loved ones, please do some research-this really is a matter of life and death. Be proactive and stop buying products containing fragrance and make life better for everyone.
this is craaazy actually had to go to the hospital for asthma meds and oxygen yesterday, having to go into work is getting dreadful, for fear of having an asthma attack, or my allergies flare up so bad my face hurts and I get an excrutiating headache. I have made a complaint to the Health and Safety advisor (3 months ago)…..a scent free policy is hard to do up, it takes a long time it’s a huge process, and he said he wants poeple to smell nice and does not want to smell his coworkers body odor…..sheesh get with the times there is a multitude of unscented/unfragranced and lightly scented products.( I think it’s because he himself loves his fragrance) So of course some of the women have been understanding and left there perfumes, scented hand lotions for use other than at work. …..aaaand of course there are those who think they have every right to bathe themselves in toxic chemicals! It’s getting soo fustrating…..So now I went to the CAO….see what happens from there…