I’m a guy and never wore cologne, but I don’t have a fragrance sensitivity either… and in these scent-free times I kind of miss that special effect of perfume when being around women.
Some smokers douse themselves in perfume in what I can only assume is an attempt to cover up the smell of cigarettes, because they will come back from a smoke break smelling like they just poured a bucket of the stuff over themselves. It doesn’t cover up the cigarette smell, though. It just makes them smell like someone sprayed perfume on an ashtray.
Among other things, because of scent clash. One scent in your shampoo, one in your conditioner, one in your clothes detergent, one in your softener, one in your deodorant… plus whatever air “fresheners” you encounter… Christ, you can end up smelling like untreated chemical-factory runoff without even using the kind of perfume which comes in a bottle.
There are some perfumes which lead to instant noseclog, others I can’t stand just because. One of these Christmases, my not-so-dear SiL bought me a car freshener (why? Jesus eating chocolate chip cookies, woman, if I wanted to have one I’d buy my own) and before I even unpacked it I exclaimed “diethyl adipate!” Bro looked at me like this: :dubious: and I explained “I had to ID it in fifth year lab…” Yup, that thing was supposed to be apple-scented, which is what diethyl adipate is used for in the perfumes and food industries. Hopefully that reaction will keep gifts of car freshener away from me (this year’s “feminine gift” was a clunky cup decorated with baby bunnies; no, I didn’t smash it on her head).
Banned and take their cousins the Scentsys with them.
This.
I’ve not always had such a sensitivity, it seems to be a relatively recent development, but boy oh boy is it unmistakable. Instant headache, eyes and nose watering, throat burning, and that vile chemical taste all the way to the back of my throat.
We have some new cleaning group at work and I’ve had to contact the supervisor a couple of times to ask him to make sure that his crew are not using products that fill the entire building with napalm-level chemical stenches during business hours or at all.
Yesterday I almost had a stroke when I walked into the ladies’ room and ran into a wall of nose-curdling chemical “freshener”, thanks to some little auto-squirt freshener gadget that one of the cleaners had placed* on the counter *no less, so it could douse an unsuspecting person directly in Eau de Old Lady’s Purse.
The RAIG :mad::mad::mad: reaction I had was incredible. Yeah, I get it, poo poo doesn’t smell nice, but, jeebuz fuck, people, we have windows! Just open them for fuck’s sake! No need to incinerate my mucous membranes!
From what I’ve read, fragrance makers use all synthetic chemicals now, many of which are toxic and cross the blood brain barrier. My reaction to them is very fast. 10 seconds to headache and nausea. Sometimes the headaches feel like icepicks in my temples. I would like to ban everyone from my cubicle as the scent lingers for a long time.
I appreciate all the comments and the support. Some natural health websites are calling this the new secondhand smoke. Fellow sufferers: fair or unfair?
Mrs Fairway, have you tried to get tips from fora specific to your problem? Like this one at webmd? There may be others.
Thanks for that. I have seen those posts and other websites and forums. I have been to two allergists recently who treated me for respiratory symptoms, which I don’t really have. I tried the medications and nasal sprays anyway, and they did not work for me.
Years ago, I switched to mostly unscented products. My case is not severe so I don’t require all my products to be scent-free. Soap, detergent and lotion are biggies. The problem at work is not that my coworkers are using fragrance, it’s the amount they are using.
At home I use an odor neutralizer instead of air freshener (comes in handy with a cat at home). I tried using that in my cubicle at work but I think the concentration of fragrance and the airspace it covered made it unsuccessful.
Everything that I read about this condition says that the only thing to be done, really, is to avoid the scents, which I do outside of work.
In July, I will see the only MD in this area that is knowledgeable about this condition and have him fill out my paperwork for reasonable accommodation and see if I can change my workspace or schedule to avoid it at work.
That’s one way to put it.
Cite.
So be aware that, if the company decides to push back, you don’t necessarily have a slam-dunk case.
FWIW.
Regards,
Shodan
I see the problem of nasty poo smell as partly an issue of bad engineering that could be fixed fairly simply. Bathroom ventilation almost always involves a fan in the ceiling, which means the smell gets drawn all the way through the room before it can escape. There should be venting built into the seat itself with ducting directly out of the room, so that the smell is confined to whence it originates. Making the restroom smell less like a shithole would probably make its users less paranoid about how they themselves smell after having used it.
We use scent-free stuff wherever possible, except for a couple of all-natural things with mild scents. We pre-wash any item of clothing, bedding, etc. We air out any electronics and lots of other products, and we pay extra for low-VOC paints, carpets, etc. when we do remodeling. It makes a big difference for me.
I’m pretty sensitive to many smells, especially those that are artificial/chemical smells. Natural incense, burning wood, etc., does not bother me at all unless I’m stuck in an enclosed space with it for a long time, but any of those obnoxious sprays or cheap incense or a wide variety of other things will irritate me. I get cranky right away, followed by a nasty-feeling, but moderate headache (mostly in the front), and slight nausea. If I can’t get away from it, the headache and nausea increase and I feel very slightly achy all over. Clothing and bedding that’s been washed in scented detergent will make me itchy until I shower and change.
Anything that’s high in VOCs seems to trigger it, even when the actual smell to them is almost no different than, say, the slight plastic-y smell you’d get if you took a good strong whiff of your monitor right now. I can tell right away.
I’m a bit worried for my future, in that I think there are more stringent codes regarding fire-retardation for furniture and mattresses and such, now (I haven’t bothered to look into this deeply yet, so I could be wrong here). Most of our furniture predates the change, but when we bought a couch a couple of years ago I could smell the VOCs or whatever. It was pretty faint, and I figured airing it out would be fine. A week later I had a nap on that couch and after half an hour I woke up with a pounding headache, nausea, and aching muscles and joints, as if I had broken a personal record for binge-drinking. We were able to get the couch replaced, but it was a bit of an ordeal getting one without the fire retardant stuff on it. I have not had any problems with the current couch.
I first noticed this sensitivity in my late twenties. I couldn’t judge whether or not it’s gotten more severe with time, but I have gotten very good at recognizing when a particular odor is going to be a problem for me. I did quit smoking about six and a half years ago, but that hasn’t had any significant effect on my sensitivity that I can tell (although I can smell everything better now).
I look forward to the day when medical science has a firmer grasp on MCS (or whatever it will eventually be called), but with such a wide array of variables, it might be quite some time. I’m personally convinced that it’s not just “all in my head”, but I’m also pretty certain that psychological factors confound scientific studies of the biological basis for this sort of sensitivity.
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I’m pretty sensitive to many smells, especially those that are artificial/chemical smells. Natural incense, burning wood, etc., does not bother me at all unless I’m stuck in an enclosed space with it for a long time, but any of those obnoxious sprays or cheap incense or a wide variety of other things will irritate me. I get cranky right away, followed by a nasty-feeling, but moderate headache (mostly in the front), and slight nausea. If I can’t get away from it, the headache and nausea increase and I feel very slightly achy all over. Clothing and bedding that’s been washed in scented detergent will make me itchy until I shower and change.
I can identify with a lot of that. After 20-30 minutes of exposure, I get cranky and depressed, sometimes tearful, which is not fun at work. My case is not as severe as yours, and I can’t imagine what you have to go through to avoid the VOC’s. I also prewash everything.
I did find another doctor who can see me in 2 weeks. He’s 3 hours away so I will take the day off work. It’s certainly better than waiting until July.
Yesterday, a coworker put on her scented hand lotion after I had had lunch, and lunch came up. That’s the first time that has happened recently and it’s alarming.
There are some scientists studying this condition, which they call TILT (Toxic-Induced Loss of Tolerance). One is Claudia Miller; I can’t remember the others.
I didn’t know this was a disputed thing. I get really, really ill with certain smells and in different ways. Smelly truck exhaust is going to give me a headache and nausea. The gas from the stove will give me a headache that won’t go away for hours. Some perfumes burn my nose. There are smells I really don’t like but don’t get me sick, so it’s not a matter of just unpleasantness.
I’m lucky I can mostly avoid my triggers. I back off of trucks as much as possible and roll up the windows. I don’t stay in the room when I turn the oven on, or I put the fan on if I can’t leave.
Chemical hypersensitivity itself isn’t controversial and is known to occur in many conditions such as irritant rhinitis, asthma, and migraines. MCS is controversial because it’s a poorly studied and poorly defined idiopathic condition.
My hypersensitivity to airborne irritants has varied over the years, but at my worst, before getting on medications, virtually every little smell would instantly trigger nasal irritation, headache, and disabling cognitive impairment.
And it can come from things such as being allergic or sensitive to a popular cleaner… let’s say you’ve got a problem with the scent of Purple Seafood Pine Cleaner and it’s what you use, what your mom uses, what the cleaning ladies at work use: until the offending, individual agent is identified, you’re going to feel like you get sick “any time you’re indoors, I must get away from the chemicals! As soon as I am outdoors in the fresh air it’s so much better” (actual report from a lady with MCS, while standing right next to a very busy street).
One of my students had a bad reaction to acetone. For years she’d had a problem with nail polish (it was actually with acetone-based removers) and with lots of indoors locations, and gotten hives or inflammation in the most unexpected sites and times (think “using a freshly-cleaned toilet”). A few days after we detected the problem she told me that going through the cleaning products in the family house had turned up acetone in more than half of them.
Yeah that’s another possibility. It can appear that someone is reactive to everything when they’re really only reactive to one or a few things that are just in everything.
For me, it was very clear what my airborne triggers where since my reactions were instant upon exposure to their smell. I know the specific products, such as permanent markers etc., but not the specific chemical(s).
However, people can be hypersensitive to structurally diverse chemicals as well, by being too sensitive to very common chemical properties such as reactive electrophiles, acids, and bases. We have irritant receptors on sensory nerve endings and other cell types in the airway that monitor and respond to such common classes of chemicals. And if that normal process becomes amplified it can cause inflammatory reactions to tiny levels of diverse chemical exposures.
Chemical irritant dose and potency varies per product or exposure, so mildly sensitive people may rarely encounter a triggering exposure while the extremely sensitive can strongly react to infinitesimal exposures to nearly everything. I’ve experienced both scenarios, and of course the latter was pure hell.
Those air fresheners that hang from your rearview mirror give me a major headache. My dear friend hangs a scented Febreze gizmo on her car vent, and I get sick the second I sit down. I’d honestly rather smell cow dung than that overpowering, artificial scents.
Colognes don’t bother me unless applied too liberally.