Odour, odour, odour

Perfumes, or 8220;fragranced products8221;, are no different from tobacco smoke and loud noise, or from faecal matter or putrefying animal...

Perfumes, or 8220;fragranced products8221;, are no different from tobacco smoke and loud noise, or from faecal matter or putrefying animal remains, in that they invade the personal spaces of people other than their users/creators. Owing to the weight of the advertising behind them, though, they are too often taken to be desirable, fashionable, and so on. Being generally quite expensive, they are thought, at least by those who have more money than sense, to represent 8220;the good life8221;.

Many users of perfumes insist that it is their personal right to use these substances, quite ignoring the fact that those around them are compelled to breathe in the fumes. The same people are far more careful about breaking wind in enclosed spaces such as lifts, although doing that would be an attack on precisely the same olfactory organs. Another defence often offered is the 8220;little bit8221; one, which does not consider that even that can make things exceedingly uncomfortable for others.

Much evidence is around to show that perfumes can cause health problems for those who inhale them. One group of researchers named asthma, migraines and upper respiratory tract conditions as the most commonly caused problems. In the US, the American Lung Association, the Journal of the American Medical Association, Johns Hopkins University and the Mayo Clinic all recognise that perfumes and fragranced products are asthma triggers.

Fifteen years ago, one research organisation made a rather longer list: 8220;watery or dry eyes, double vision, sneezing, nasal congestion, sinusitis, tinnitus, ear pain, dizziness, vertigo, coughing, bronchitis, difficulty breathing, difficulty swallowing, laryngitis, asthma, anaphylaxis, headaches8230;8221; The list goes on and on. Of course, all of these do not affect everyone, but each can affect some. That has been reason enough for a rise in requests for 8220;fragrance free8221; work places. And the logic of such requests has been seen: in September 8217;99, Nova Scotia, Halifax, established fragrance free policies for public offices and many private businesses, just as was done with second hand cigarette smoke.

The chief difficulty is that people who are sensitive to perfumes are often seen as making unreasonable requests. The use of artificially produced substances is seen as being somehow 8220;natural8221;. Natural? Of the 5,000 or so ingredients used in fragranced products, between 80-90 per cent are petroleum based. Safety testing has been done of less than 1,500 8212; only their effects on the skin have been tested, not the effects of inhaling them.