I found a link recently to the Household Products Database. Created by the National Library of Medicine, it provides health & safety information on household products.
You can look up information by product or ingredient. For example, enter Fragrance in the ingredients search and you get this long list. I didn’t read the entire list, but I did look through it.
I learned some interesting things. For example, did you know you could buy Cologne for your pet??? I knew that if you took a pet to be groomed that they put stinky stuff on them. But worse – Crest Toothpaste is on the list as containing fragrance??!? What in the world? Why? Oh, sorry, probably cannot apply logic to this… 
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A little different this time: A puzzle in the round! Enjoy!
My Time: 1:40
Click on the image or here to go to the puzzle.
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I’ve suspected for quite a while that the perfume issue was getting out of hand. More and more when I go out in public (which, btw, I do less and less), I wind up coming home reeking of all the other perfumes worn by other people. It is in my hair and on my clothes. I have been known to change my clothes and even wash my hair during the day because of this.
Well, this is an email from someone with no health issues from fragrances, just is offended by their overuse.
I don’t think I am “chemically sensitive” in a medical way. I just really hate stinky perfumes! Even though it does feel as though it gets up my nose, but I don’t actually get a headache from it. So many people think they should load on the fragrance whether they are going to the office or to the theater. What is the best thing to say? You can’t say “Boy, that’s a horrid, stinky scent you’re wearing!” How about “Oh, I’m sorry, but that heavy perfume you have on is too overpowering to me, so could you not come so close?” What if the person is your supervisor????
I’ve always wished I could just have a sneezing fit on demand. Or perhaps a coughing fit? Sadly, I’ve not found a nice way to tell someone that they reek. And it always seems that those who wear the most are the easiest offended. I can certainly sympathize with this reader though. And you really do have to tread lightly when it’s your supervisor.
Anyone have a good suggestion for this person? You’d be helping a lot of people. I know b/c quite a few people find this blog by posing a question like that in Google!
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A regular commentator to this blog, Linda, sent me some information on a free online course for nurses:
Fragrance Free! Creating a Safe Healthcare Environment — 1.2 Contact Hours
The goal of this program is to ensure a therapeutic environment in which the patient and the nurse can interact, as well as to create a healthy workplace in which employees can practice.
Course Description: Chemical fragrances may seem like a natural part of modern American life, but in fact, they are anything but natural.
These petroleum-based products, many of which contain known carcinogens, are produced with virtually no regulation by the FDA, and their widespread use is turning the modern health care environment-and the rest of the world-into Chemical Soup. Fragrance Free! looks at the hidden costs of chemical fragrance use in the health care industry, including the growth of allergies and potentially debilitating conditions such as chemical sensitivity.
The course discusses how to recognize the beginnings of chemical sensitivity, while offering alternatives to fragranced produces and common sense steps to reduce chemical fragrances in the health care environment.
Nurses and LPN’s are taking it. Credits are good across the US.
I think it should be required by all nursing professionals. I have a friend who is a retired nurse. She taught nursing also. She said that she was taught NOT to wear any fragrances around patients. Too bad they don’t teach that anymore! I had an experience a few years back with that. I was in hospital being treated for my migraines – for which the primary trigger is fragrances. One of the main nurses literally reeked w/ perfume. She was sweet as could be, but I always cringed when she came in b/c it was sheer torture to smell that perfume.
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I receive emails via my other web site, Fragrance Free World, as well as from visitors to this site. I thought I would post some comments from a recently received email:
If exposed for more than 15-20 minutes can be under the weather, unable to sleep and depressed for 3-4 days thereafter
Air frsheners or fabric conditioners cause chest to tighten and breathing difficult
Sometimes feel that am tasting soap in my mouth and throat for hours afterwards
Have made my home free of chemicals and am well as long as I can avoid contact with V.O.C’s
Have followed development of REACH in the European parliament an am disappointed to see that 7 – 10 years will pass before chemical manufacturers need o show awareness and stringen safety controls so would just like to hear that someone out there is creating a greater awareness…..
I had not heard of REACH before so I thought I would do a bit of research.
Firstly, REACH is an acronym for : Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals. This is a law that went into effect in Europe on June 1, 2007. The overall goal appears to be to protect human health and the environment from toxic chemicals. Prior to this law, chemicals that were in use prior to 1981 were sort of ‘grandfathered’ – i.e. they were not subject to the same regulations as newer chemicals. You can read more about REACH on this web site. While it is true that industry has up to 11 (eleven!) years to comply, it is encouraging to know that more is being done about this issue.
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Dryer Max Dryer Balls – They help eliminate static. They also claim to shorten drying time although I can’t really be sure about that. I got mine as a Christmas present. That was nice since I’m a rather reluctant shopper these days.
Here’s what they look like:
(Hey – a bonus – if you click on the image – it’s a PUZZLE! My time was 2:55!)
The price is reasonable and they’re available many places. Just google them. (Just be warned that if you go to their actual web site that they play a movie when you go there.)
What’s that? You say you found some fragrance free dryer sheets? Keep in mind that they come with a lot of chemicals too. All those sheets have been found to leave deposits on your lint screen. Less is best!
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Sssshhh! He thinks he’s hiding!
My Time: 3:26
Click on the image or here to go to the puzzle.
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One way I have of wasting time is listening to the radio in the morning. The station I listen to has a contest at 7:30 AM called “20 Minute Trivia for the Tired and Brain-dead.” A trivia question is asked and over the course of 20 minutes, people call in trying to guess the answer. It’s never the obvious answers, it’s always the weird ones. If noone gets the answer in 20 minutes, the prize is awarded to the person on the phone when time is up.
This morning’s question was: “According to new research, what is the main reason a woman will wear too much perfume?”
It’s always interesting to hear the banter of the morning DJs. They talked about the women they’ve worked with that you could smell coming. They all agreed that the woman who wore too much perfume was to be avoided. I have to take exception here because men can be just as guilty as women at wearing too much stink.
I was sure that the answer had to be that they could no longer smell it b/c of all the fragrances in their life. I never did get through, and it turns out I was wrong.
The answer? Because they are depressed. It seems, according to this (unidentified) research, you tend to lose your sense of smell when depressed. So to me that seems to create quite a paradox. Someone is depressed, can’t smell, puts on more perfume, everyone avoids the person, they get more depressed, can’t smell, put on MORE perfume, everyone avoids… You get the picture?
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The poor people that come up with these things. If they only knew that the fragrances have affected their brains to the point that they come up with CRAZY products. Just what the world needs is a fan that spews fragrance.
This came from an email ad sent out by my least favorite kitchen, bath and bedroom shop. The one that goes BEYOND the necessary in stinking up their store with fragrances. The fragrance fan is from that “Non-Rebel” candle company and is touted as “Flame-free fragrance!”
(No, no, I don’t get email ads from that company. I have spies. 
)
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