How to Cope With Scent Sensitivity

Your reaction to perfumed people and products may range from annoyance to discomfort to extreme physical illness. Here are some suggestions to help you manage the delicate balance between maintaining healthy relationships and preserving your own health and well-being.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Personal Organizers

1. Identify the specific scents that bother you. For example, is it bathroom deodorizer or a family member's cologne?
2. Document the reactions you have to the offending fragrances. These can include migraines, asthma attacks, or eye irritation.
3. Find a doctor who treats fragrance-sensitive patients, sharing your list of symptoms and other observations.
4. Ask your doctor for suggestions about how to explain the effects of perfume products on your health to friends, family, colleagues and other acquaintances.
5. Leave your medical visit with recommendations for avoiding or reducing your exposure or reaction to fragrance. These suggestions can include prescription or over-the-counter medications, air filters, facial masks, and fragrance-free household cleaning and personal hygiene items.
6. Research your legal rights to a scent-free environment in the workplace and other public places, such as health clinics and places of worship.
7. Approach individuals whom you need to ask not to wear or use scented products such as hair spray or incense in your home, car or presence. Explain your health concerns and possible risks of illness.
8. Find support from others who have similar reactions to scented products.

Tips & Warnings

• Make it clear to people - trying your best not to offend or otherwise criticize - that your reaction is not to the actual fragrance, but to the chemicals used to produce it.
• Be completely honest about how perfumed products affect you: begin in your home if you live with others, then address your co-workers.
• Present factual information about the health risks involved, explain what you've learned about others who share this type of reaction, and maintain your right to an environment in which you can breathe freely.
• People may not believe or respect you. They might even be hostile - either because they don't understand or can't accept how their fragrance choices affect you. Many people believe that their right to wear perfume (similar to some smokers' rights arguments) supercedes your right to a nontoxic environment.
• Little research has been conducted in this area because perfume ingredients are trade secrets, making it difficult to study the effects of specific chemicals on health.