I am one of those people who cannot tolerate strong fragrances, especially floral scents. I get headaches, I sneeze, and sometimes I have hard time breathing. I'm not alone. Growing numbers of people, especially women, are developing fragrance sensitivity. Because of my problems with it, I decided to look into it as a topic, and share a series of articles on this problem. We talk a lot about the environment and how to keep it clean. We are concerned about the Ozone layer. We want to keep our air fresh. What part does fragrance play in the Environment? Should we be concerned about the long-term effects of perfumes on our health, and the health of those around us?
There are many things we as individuals can do to cut down on scent pollution. For one thing, we can inform others about the problem. I did just that this past week. It was a simple trip to the Mall (or so I thought). My mother and I were going to do a little Christmas shopping. We entered a major department store at our local shopping mall. We have been shopping at this store for years, and so we know to avoid the cosmetics entrance of the store at all costs. What we didn't know is that EVERY entrance now has a cosmetics area. We couldn't avoid it. Once again, here we go...running the Perfume Gauntlet. We couldn't get anything done at that store. We had to leave. When I got home, I looked up the store's website and wrote an e-mail to them. The text is below:
"My mother and I were in the store on Saturday, December 7 to attempt to do some Christmas shopping. I say "Attempt" because we were not able to even stay 10 minutes without having breathing problems and allergic reactions.
The problem? Fragrances. Everywhere. In the air, kiosks of fragrances on EVERY level of the store, and-to top it off - we had to run the "Fragrance Gauntlet" at the entrance. Sales Associates were lined up-offering scented cards to every person that was trying to get past them.
Go To Page: 1 2
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Sharon Rorem's Fragrance-Free Products topic, please visit the Discussions page.