The Other Michael

We have ongoing battles over this at work (Federal office building - giant open floors with cubicles).

Several women (and I've also been overwhelmed by some guys in other units who obviously feel that if a little aftershave is good, a pint must be really wonderful) in our unit have gotten really insulted when we've asked them to cut back on the scent (and they refused to do so). We can tell when they've gotten to their desks in the morning without hearing or seeing them - the clouds of stench come rolling over the partitions like a 19th century London killer fog.

One new employee was very apologetic when we approached her about her perfume, and even asked if we could get through the day as she wouldn't be able to wash it off before getting home. She cut way back beginning the next day, and isn't a problem. We made a point of going over and telling her how much we appreciated her cooperation.

One of my coworkers has a fairly severe allergic reaction and has had to take sick leave and go home. Since he's now got a documented reaction to it (statement from his doctor) he's just going to start going home and filing a workers comp claim each time to get reimbursed on his sick leave (which should finally get management attention as they've been really derelict in even making a show of dealing with the problem). Another one (sits in between us) has her sinuses clamp shut and eyes water. I just get really peeved because I too can taste that stuff in my mouth as well as smell it, though I don't have the strong reactions the others do.

Oh the joys of getting into an elevator with these people when you've got 5 floors to go, with people getting on/off at each floor to delay the trip. I just can't hold my breath that long.

I've been regaled with stories of the womens' restroom being filled with toxic cloulds of perfume and hairspray while people are trapped in a stall struggling to breathe.

We're not asking people not to wear anything at all - just wear it in quantities that keeps the scent next to their person, not blanketing a 40-50 foot square area.

I bet they'd get pissed if I brought in a boom box, turned it up to stun, and stuck it right outside of their cubicle, and then acted all afronted when asked to turn it down. Hey, my music is who I am - deal with it!

Oh yes, the people who like to cook rancid fish in the microwave! Even with a sign on the microwave (which is in the unit) asking people not to do that, someone (unfortunately one of the directors I think) continues to be sure it couldn't possibly be addressing them.

Diva Flambe is never around when you find someone really deserving of a dose of slapthology.

cheers,
Michael
(in SF which has a long tradition of vigilante justice, and I'm tempted to be true to that tradition)

Jackalope

I'm about to use exactly that excuse to quit doing jury duty. If I have to sit in the same room with someone wearing the wrong (cheap) perfume, I get a migraine. Which means I can't even drive home, even if I could flee the room right away. Worse, perfumes that use d-lemonene as the solvent actually make my nose bleed. It's a delayed reaction that sets in somewhere between a half hour to an hour after exposure. I get nasty ulcers inside my nose and sinuses as well (that's why it's bleeding). Screw that.

Congratulations, you have a working vomeronasal organ (olfactory organ that's situated in the roof of the mouth). Most humans have a vestigal VMO if they have one at all. A few unlucky ones like us can actually taste scents as well as smell them. The reason you see housecats get a sort of sneer on their faces as they sniff with their mouths open is they're putting their vomeronasal organ to work.

Worse, they've sprayed so much of that toxic $#@! that it lingers long after the offender has left. The women's dressing room at the dance studio where we rehearse is always an adventure. You never know what horrid goop someone has sprayed into the air before you got there.



When I was still doing sound at the local pub, I got to have the experience of people walking in the door of the pub and me being able to smell them all the way back at the soundboard. Cheap, evil-smelling stuff, too. Worse, when they still allowed smoking indoors, there were people who wore enough perfume to overcome that stench. What the fuck do these people do, dump a bucket of the stuff over their heads?



Got a good set of speakers on your computer? I've found that playing bagpipe music usually makes other people crazy. Failing that, New Orleans jazz should always be played at high volume, to get the full experience of a brass band jiving down the street. The Woopin Blues is a good one for that. Requires RealPlayer, site is for the Storyville Stompers a traditional jazz band. These guys kick ass. Play ethnic music, they'll have a harder time arguing about it. I can give you plenty of suggestions that will fit your ethnic background and make most people around you crazy.

Actually, claw hammer aversion therapy may be the only thing that would actually work on some people. Or a thorough beating with a clue-by-four with a nail in it. A good bitchslapping wouldn't even make a dent on these folks.

Lee
(Across the Bay in lovely Berkeley/Oakland, where cheap incense and even cheaper perfume produce floating clouds of toxic goop in the air)

scombrid

VMO eh? Mine must work. As some smells register really strongly in the mouth. Strong artificial fragrances are terribly offensive and absolutely ruin a meal in a restaurant. Of course the strong sniffer can be nice. An ex off mine smelled divine imediately after a good workout, no perfume, just her smell with the bulk of the smell registering right at the base of the nasal passages at the back of my mouth.

Before I started on inhaled corticosteriods to help with the COPD, strong fragrance would cause full on hay-fever symptoms with the sneezing, wheezing, and runny itchy eyes. I hate the stuff.

Women aged 45+ at the gym seem to be the worst offenders. The shit rubs of on the equipment and gets on my clothes and skin. There's also a lady here at the lab that reeks. Her perfume (some Avon crap) lingers in the hall for quite sometime after she passes.

Yesterday I popped through the local harbor for a lap during my surfski workout and passed about 200m downwind of a sail boat motoring in and just about got knocked overboard. The perfume overpowered the diesel exhaust. I feel really sorry for anyone that had to share a cabin with the woman.

Ramen

Does anyone care to address the contents in the links provided in my OP? The links state that the fragrance industry is self regulated and that fragrances do contain toxic ingredients. Yet, it seems that most of us assume that the fragrance industry is regulated and that such things as toxic ingredients would never be allowed in fragrances. After all, corporations would never endanger the safety of consumers for the almighty dollar, would they?

Jackalope

Look up the MSDS on d-lemonene and you'll never again believe that perfumes contain safe ingredients. The stuff is used as an industrial solvent. It's why the "citrus" cleaners work. It's also a sensitizer, which means it can make you develop new allergies to compounds that you're exposed to along with the sensitizer.

Then there are the mercaptins, which is what makes skunk spray so foul and so pernicious. The pernicious part is what the perfume manufacturers are exploiting. It's why some perfumes just never seem to come off, no matter how you scrub. In those cases, treat it just like skunk spray and treat the affected area with white vinegar, which denatures the mercaptins.

Then there are some of the other solvents used in extracting "natural" essential oils. Heat, steam and CO2 extraction are safe, solvent extraction holds no such guarantees. And if the solvent was used during extraction, it doesn't have to be listed as an ingredient.

orpheus last chant

I don't know what any of you might consider a bad perfume, but do consider my case.
The classroom that i spend most of the week in (not in summer thank ...ummm....old habit, sorry) has jammed windows. Only one opens and usually the teachers pretend that a little window will give them pneumonia so they don't open it.

So I walk in, and immediately a big wall of flowery, sweet, fruity fog hits me. The person who sits next to me, is not puting perfume on. She is spraying herself (!) up and down all over her with tons and tons of it for 30 seconds at least. No, she is desperately trying to lay a thick layer of volatile substances on every inch of her clothes.

I get headaches from very strong perfume, and the sweeter the worse. Avon perfume is welcome, compared to the flowery madness.

Plus, they use spray to hide the fact that they smoke and every time there is a brake about ten girls spray their hands and hair with cheap perfume. Of course the result is a mixed odour of ciggars and crap perfume that, I think, is very effective at keeping away any mosquidoes bees and other lifeforms.


I miss school!:banghead:

MzNeko

Hmmm... I don't know about it being harmful to my health, but a man wearing Drakkar Noir has been known to impair my judgement. ROWR!

Seriously, I don't know what the hell they put in that stuff, but... damn!



But other than that, I admit to having a major hate on for folks that seem to think that by the bucketful is better when it comes to perfumes.

I don't even wear any myself, because every time I have, I got headaches and sick to my stomach. It's funny, I can stand (and even enjoy) it on other people (as long as it's not excessive), but no matter how lightly I apply it, it makes me feel crappy. I guess that I just can't handle having strong scents ON me.

At this point I really prefer unscented deodorants and laundry detergents, too. My husband and I use different soaps in the shower because he likes Irish Spring and I can't stand the stink it leaves on my skin.

But I have no problem with burning incense in the house... go figure.

Shake

As long as the person wearing it hasn't practically bathed in it, usually causing others to gag, then no. I've never had any reactions to it, although I have found the mosquitos like me more ... well, they've always liked me, cologne or not.

I'm blanking out on what it was my wife wore when we were dating, but I do get aroused when I notice someone wearing it. I like a light, soft scent on a woman. As I alluded to above, even a nice scent can be bad if it's too strong.

Josie

I used to have the same problem (and what a problem to have ) but the last few times I've smelled it, I really didn't like it. I don't know if my sense of smell has changed, or if it was just on the wrong person.

bleubird

This has been a peeve of mine for years.It must be harmful(no this is not a great problem) the way it effects so many people.
I secured a domain name with the idea to create a clearing house
on this problem.This is not a capitalist plug.However, I do need some advice on website software.
www.g-a-s-p.com
"just the science mam"

bleubird