I don’t know of any – but I’d love to. It should be policy in every workplace – Don’t inflict your poor choice of synthetic chemicals on me!

Nicely sad Boo. I can’t agree with you more. Perfumes can be a real assault on the senses. I find the worst offenders are usually smokers who’ve dulled their sense of smell.

Havent heard of any – what if you got an office to yourself? (not sure what happens at meeting times)

Have you considered an out doors job? Plenty of ventillation should help.

Would be lovely. Can you move? or ask them not to wear it to work. I’ve done both and still remained friendly with them.

I would like a bullshit free work environment……….

Find some sort of IT job.

The sterotype of sweaty/smelly nerds with poor hygiene exists for a reason. As beard length increases, deodorant use goes down.

Or just work from home.

There’s a sign in my workplace that says not to wear those things due to people with allergies/ MCS but it’s not eforced.

The sterotype of sweaty/smelly nerds with poor hygiene exists for a reason. As beard length increases, deodorant use goes down.

Stereotypes exist for a reason. Generally because they are true.

KB1971 said :

I would like a bullshit free work environment……….

Top call! I’m also looking for a workplace where people will treat one another with some respect (is it too much to ask for someone to respond when you greet them? Yeah, BatShit Betty … I’m talking about YOU!).

Dazzlar said :

Would be lovely. Can you move? or ask them not to wear it to work. I’ve done both and still remained friendly with them.

ditto. I’ve found most people don’t mind being approached once you explain its an allegy. Most families deal with some type of allegy these days. Unfortunately mine are allergic to housework.

Carers ACT are fragrance free, I think.

Some people actually do need it, I sweat alot more than the average male. Im sure my workmates would rather smell my fragrance than my extreme body odour..

OMG are you serious !? I can understand being allergic to chemicals, but some people NEED deodorant !

I almost vomited the other day at someones extreme B.O.

What happens when an environment is fragrance free ? Does that mean people cant use shampoo and conditioner, or body wash, or moisteriser/handcream, perfumes… all because they contain chemicals ? What happens with the cleaners in the afternoons ?

What about being a City Ranger with Parks and Places?

There are plenty of perfume free anti-persperants and deodorants available if you really need them and Yes there are plenty of people are actually allergic to the sent not just to the chemicals.

I also think you should be able to just ask nicely and have this policy put in place.

I have a friend with this allergy (or whatever it is) and she’s also been a roommate. She just seems to have trouble breathing when there are particulates or strong odours in the air so she also goes off when there’s cigarettes and dust.

I love incense and aromatic oil but care about her health more so it never bothered me to stop using fragrances (or hairspray or lavender scented cleaning products) when she was around. Your colleagues at any job should extend you the same courtesy.

There are fragrance free deodorants and moisturisers and very natural cleaning products. Adapting to meet the needs of others is just part of being human.

Nevertheless you may have to be persistent with your colleagues just as my friend had to be patient with me. I sometimes made the mistake of spraying hairspray too close to the house (she allowed me to spray it outside) or putting on perfume before leaving and thinking it really wasn’t that big of a deal. She had to keep setting the expectations so that I would know what was acceptable or unacceptable.

haven’t there been studies that suggest that chemical sensitivities are a load of bullshit?

Uggos who compensate by bathing in perfume truly are a workplace hazard.

But I have to ask, is it really migraines, or just bad headaches? There’s a pretty big difference.

KB1971 said :

I would like a bullshit free work environment……….

So, you won’t be working in the public service, then?

*eats sardine, onion and peanut butter sandwich, tops up Old Spice*

I walked into the lift today to be swamped by the smell of some awful aftershave. Headache ensued, I’ve never thought of actually looking for a fragrance free workplace though.

Me no fry said :

KB1971 said :

I would like a bullshit free work environment……….

So, you won’t be working in the public service, then?

Yah, I have a life decision to make

I’m sorry I find this request weird. (as I’ve already stated)

I dont think asking would be generous. A lady I used to have to sit next to for 8 hours every day smoked heavily, and would come back once an hour stinking like cigarettes, it was so bad I would go home with a headache daily. I asked her to either cut back on the smoking, or spray a quick mist of perfume and she told me she was too lazy.

I had an airfresher on my desk to help, but found it would get thrown in the bin every couple of days and I’d have to fish it out.

Amanda Hugankis said :

KB1971 said :

I would like a bullshit free work environment……….

Top call! I’m also looking for a workplace where people will treat one another with some respect (is it too much to ask for someone to respond when you greet them? Yeah, BatShit Betty … I’m talking about YOU!).

^ This behaviour is rampant at my work. These days I don’t even bother to say hi to them, why bother? It’s a waste of time and energy to get annoyed with these sort of people.

As stated above, Carers ACT is fragrance free. However, it might help if they have any jobs going ( which they might – who knows) and if you are appropriately skilled.

Thoroughly Smashed said :

…But I have to ask, is it really migraines, or just bad headaches? There’s a pretty big difference.

I know what you mean – it’s like people complaining of the ‘flu when they have a bad cold.

But I have had migraines from a perfume assault in an elevator. Another time it was sampling a Lancome facial cream which had a really strong smell. Within 10 minutes I was in the grip of a migraine and throwing up.

I don’t think people would really mind that much if it was just a headache. Migraines are the pits.

Darwin

WestonGuy said :

Nicely sad Boo. I can’t agree with you more. Perfumes can be a real assault on the senses. I find the worst offenders are usually smokers who’ve dulled their sense of smell.

+1. The same people that think a breath mint covers their stink.

There are treatments..

Pommy bastard said :

But what about treatments? It is not uncommon in medicine to be diagnosed by your treatment. The doctor suspects you have a certain illness and gives you medicine for it. If the medicine works, he was probably right. Can we define MCS by a common successful treatment? No, because MCS is not considered a curable disease, and the treatments are as diverse as the symptoms and causes.

If you search the Internet, you can find the name of Pietr Hitzig, a Maryland physician who prescribes a combination of the drugs phentermine and fenfluramine for MCS. Nowhere on his World Wide Web page does he tell you that these are actually weight loss drugs in the amphetamine family. Perhaps Hitzig feels that if he can’t cure his patients, he can at least make them happy by helping them drop a few pounds.

One clinical ecologist, Sherry Rogers of Syracuse, New York, has prescribed a macrobiotic diet – based on grains and vegetables, free of wheat and dairy products – for MCS. Rogers says it works by detoxifying the body, especially critical in today’s toxin-ridden world. Another clinical ecologist, Joseph Weissman, who has a practice in Torrance, California, reportedly agrees with the macrobiotic diet but also recommends avoiding tap water, caffeine, and alcohol. He tells MCS sufferers to rid their homes of toxic chemicals such as cleaners and pesticides, improve the ventilation system, and avoid all drugs, whether prescription or over the counter.

A favorite MCS treatment is saunas, which supposedly “sweat out toxins.” One correspondent in an Internet news group said the government ought to provide all MCS sufferers with a sauna. They would probably like that (who wouldn’t?), but you can’t sweat out a toxin, because the sweat glands aren’t connected to any of the organs that process toxins. And no, saunas don’t help you lose fat either.

Other treatments include coffee enemas, something called “salt-neutralization therapy,” gamma globulin, interferon, vitamins, ginseng, and the patient’s urine (as a beverage or injection). A Sacramento-area specialist treats many of his patients with injections of “the north wind.” He bubbles air through water, then injects the water as a “neutralizer.” Why “the north wind”? Because many of his patients complain they feel worse when the wind blows from that direction.

A common treatment for MCS is simple avoidance. This can be mild, as in avoiding, say, formaldehyde or solvents. But sometimes it means making yourself a prisoner in your own home, living in a small porcelain house (porcelain being one of the few materials said to be safe for MCS sufferers), or, in extreme cases, moving away from civilization. One favorite refuge is the small scorpion- and fire ant-infested town of Wimberly, Texas, an hour’s drive from San Antonio. MCS patients are often referred there by Gerald Ross and William Rea, physicians at the Environmental Health Center in Dallas.

In Wimberly can be found a woman who hangs her mail on a clothesline for weeks before reading it, to allow the toxins in the ink to dissipate. Another woman tried living in a six-by-nine-foot porcelain hut but now just spends almost all her time on her porch, no matter how cold it gets. Yet another wears a protective mask while shopping but still develops breathlessness, palpitations, and vomiting when she smells gasoline fumes.

http://fumento.com/mcs/sick.html