Parents ask school to ban perfume

[The Straight Story]

Parents ask school to ban perfume


Parents of asthmatic teen ask Maryland to ban perfume, cologne from schools

LEITERSBURG, Md. - LEITERSBURG, Md. (AP) — The parents of a 14-year-old Maryland boy are asking a public school system to ban perfumes and colognes because they trigger their son's asthma.

Danial Murray, a ninth grade student at Smithsburg High School, often suffers a severe asthma attack when he smells cologne, perfume or other scented products. His parents say that means he has to come home from school three or four times a week. They're asking the Washington County Board of Education to ban the fragrances.

Kelly Murray says her son's condition was triggered last year when another student doused Danial's clothes with a scented spray during gym.

The president of the Washington County Board of Education says the board will likely review the matter during committee meetings next month.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/parents-ask-school-to-ban-perfume-1.1589496

[TheWraith]

1. How about you just ban splashing somebody with it?

No need to ruin it for everyone.

[Hepburn]

35. I would guess you don't have allergies, right?

I get near an Mennon product and I literally go into respiratory arrest. If that is ruining things for you, sorry.

:eyes:

[TheWraith]

54. I do, actually, strong ones.

However, if we start banning anything from schools that anyone is allergic to, it's the same downward slope as banning anything anyone finds offensive. I don't expect the world to eliminate everything that I find noxious anywhere I go, just to provide a fair chance at avoiding it. In this case, the kid didn't get in trouble because he just caught a whiff of perfume, he was ASSAULTED.

[Kievan Rus]

2. More knee-jerk crap

[imdjh]

3. Why do you hate children? My son almost died from Chanel #19. What are you a Republican?

Just thought I would prepare you for the response from those people who believe that the public schools are under a legal and moral obligation to adapt, change, or restrict everyone for the peculiarities, needs, annoyances, or preferences of one child.

[mitchum]

23. I really did laugh out loud

nicely done

[DJ13]

4. Second hand perfume is a societal danger

Their right to smell like a compost pile ends where my nose begins.

[rucky]

5. Seems like a reasonable request to me.

:shrug:

[havocmom]

6. If they get the ban on perfume, will the entire school district have to go scentless?

Can envision some HUGE problems with such a ban. SO many products have perfumes: soaps, laundry products, hair products, even some clothing I have seen of late has scent added 'to enhance wearer's well being'.

While I appreciate the seriousness of the lad's problem (asthmatic myself) it seems this might add one more level of policing to the duties of overworked teachers.

At what point do we have to make adjustments for our own issues and not expect the world to be our bubble?

I am in the probable majority who doesn't want 2nd hand smoke in air in public places. Regulating that is fairly straight forward and not a financial burden on others by means of forcing them to clean out all the grooming and household products they have and replace them with (generally more expensive) fragrance free items. But a perfume ban would be a can of unintended-consequence worms. One could see a lot of court cases over what sort of soap little Jimmy's mom used on last week's laundry. One could imagine a lot of school district resource$ going to defend against orders to do the impossible, which a perfume ban would most likely be.

If my health problems are affected by certain normal ingredients of modern human environment (and they are so affected) I just have to avoid the offending substances. Sure, the kid has to go to school, but there might be a means to assure his education without making the world change.

That said, I would also like to see less perfume in the world. Less dust and mites would be great too. ;)

[csziggy]

39. Way too many products are scented these days

Thank modern medicine for Zyrtec or I would be even less able to go out in public than I was before that product was introduced! For years I seldom went to any enclosed public places and limited my time in crowds.

Even with medication, I cannot go to malls, walk past the section in the drugstore where perfumes and cosmetics are stored, go through the soap and personal product aisles, or past the flower department. I have to hunt for unscented soaps, deoderant, cleaning products, and so on - surprisingly difficult when I can't stay in the aisles where they are sold because of the predominance of stinky products.

Most hand soaps in public ladies rooms are scented, so I cannot properly wash my hands. My husband has to limit what he uses to wash when he is away from home because I can react to what he uses.

With medication, I can go more places and be around more people but it is still a problem that I will live with for the rest of my life.

But here is the rub in a school - the asthmatic kid may be prohibited from having his medication handy since so many schools are zero tolerance to an absurd degree. How liable will the school be if they do not prohibit perfume, the child has a reaction and cannot treat himself in time and he has a severe reaction? If a potentially life saving can be banned why not a frivolous product such as perfume?

[Posteritatis]

66. You gotta love schools where a kid's rescue inhaler has to be kept under lock and key

I've heard of that particular BS too many times, and witnessed it firsthand once or twice. Never fails to piss me off.

[jaxx]

7. Once again the few want to dictate to the many.

Asthma is no fun, some in our family have it too. But it would be simpler to put the kids into a scent free classroom with other scent free kids rather than punish the whole.

[BoneDaddy]

53. Absolutely

We have now shifted to such an extreme where the group is sacrificed for the individual to the point of absurdity.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

8. He's not getting an attack when he SMELLS cologne, it's when he INHALES it.

[EndersDame]

9. What happens when that boy goes to the mall and other places in public?

I understand the school wide ban but wonder how these fragile people live outside an extremly controlled environment?

[Odin2005]

31. I try to avoid the mall whenevery possible because the fragrances from...

Bath & Body Works and Abercrombe & Fitch turn me into a rocking, hand-flapping mess.

[EndersDame]

40. I have not gone to the mall in 5 years because it turns me into a humanity hatin mess!

[excess_3]

10. is it OK to wear Peanut allergy perfume? .nt

[JoDog]

11. It sounds like

they need to have a conversation with the child's doctor first. Are there any other medications the child could try? It may be more of a poorly managed asthma problem, rather than a perfume-gone-wild problem.

If they do ban scented products at this school, they will step onto a very slippery slope.

[tammywammy]

12. So this would mean I couldn't wear my peanut perfume anymore?

Well, that's okay, I'll just do an extra dusting of cat dander.

[Stuckinthebush]

13. Can we ban it in the office too?

Why do people feel the need to do that to the rest of us? Wasn't perfume designed to cover the body odor of people living in the 17th and 18th century? :)

[tammywammy]

17. I had this discussion with a co-worker

He was telling me that at a previous job he did take people aside and tell them to knock it off with so much perfume or even that they needed to start bathing more regularly. At my last job the lady in the cube next to me seriously wore half a bottle a day. I actually took MORE breaks just to get away from it. I don't mind perfume, but two squirts is enough! My former boss SHOULD have said something to the offending co-worker, since her stink was enough to actually disrupt the day.

But I have to say where I'm at now, I don't find this to be a problem. Some of the people here wear cologne/perfume and I'll just get a wiff of it, not enough to gag or anything.

[imdjh]

24. My favorite is the strawberry. It's like when you open a packet of Crystal Light...

.... and that fine dust goes in your nose, and you're not sure if you're going to sneeze or not.

[lukasahero]

34. I wish I could get your co-worker to come to my office

Over-use of perfume and cologne trigger migraines for me. I live on Excedrin at the office. :(

[tammywammy]

45. Even worse

She went through a phase where she would eat popcorn in the afternoon, and she always burned it. So I'd have to run from that stink. Or the day she brought some stinky fish type of substance to eat for lunch. I literally started gagging in my office.


Honestly, it really IS up to the boss (such as my co-worker used to do) to say something. My boss at my previous job KNEW how much the perfume bothered people, but she wouldn't ever say anything.

[TrogL]

57. The lady in the cubicle next to me was spraying perfume on her plants

... and complaining bitterly about the cigarette smell from the smokers outside her window.

The problem - the windows do NOT open and the air intake is on the far side of the building. Smokers have been prohibited from the area. No way, no hell could she possibly be smelling it.

They had a shuffle and I'm now in a different part of the building.

[Zodiak]

14. Sounds like a case for home-schooling.

Good luck getting hundreds of kids to smell "natural".

To be honest, the parents are being asses here with their demands to make everyone pay for their kids' allergies.

[rd_kent]

38. +1

[JonQ]

15. That kid is not getting laid in highschool

no way in hell. He'll be that whiny asthma kid who got perfume banned, fairly or not.

[itsrobert]

16. Please ban it at the Navy Exchange

When you walk in the door you are bombarded with perfume counters. I just want to get to tool section.

[imdjh]

25. Why do people count perfumes?

[havocmom]

26. Do big mall stores still hire spritzers who hose ya down when ya walk in the door?

I had to threaten a spritzer with being put on the floor to keep him away from me one day. I bathe and everything.

Used to work at the cosmetic counter at a Navy Exchange. We did not spray stuff, but customers would often gas us with their free hits of favorite scents. One old chief had the audacity to hope I wouldn't mind having my hand sprayed til dripping as I waited on another chap. He 'just wanted to know what it smelled like'. It smelled like a trip to the first aid station for me as it sent me into some sort of reaction. Quit my job that day. Figured the Navy was unlikely to put a ban on rude people and nasty ass perfume. ;)

[Arctic Dave]

18. If people would remember that perfume / cologne should be a wisper not a shout across a room.

Face it, no one is going to fall madly in love with you or rip your clothes off because of chemicals on your body, no matter what the ads tell you.

[pipi_k]

22. hmmmmm....don't bet on it...

the part about not feeling lustful for someone because of chemicals on their body, I mean...

I'm a sucker for scent.


I have a list of particular men's colognes that can be quite the aphrodisiacs...

for me anyway.


:7

[pipi_k]

19. "Other scented products"....

Like laundry detergent? Fabric softener? Scented deodorants? Lotions? Shampoos? Soaps?


What about cooking odors? Will the next step be to de-scent the cafeteria? No more smell of baked mac and cheese or pizza?


And what about gym class? No sweating allowed because the smell of BO makes him wheeze?


Maybe these parents need to get their kid a mask to wear out in public or he's gonna be in some big trouble.

[Fleshdancer]

20. sounds like aholes are using it to bully him

"her son's condition was triggered last year when another student doused Danial's clothes with a scented spray during gym"

If his asthma is as severe as they say, then of course something needs to be done. Using it to torture the kid in gym class makes me side with the kid and his family. Ban it. It isn't necessary anyway.

[Maraya1969]

21. It's because this country is so physically sick. The rate of asthma

has increased incredibly over the last decade. When I was in school in the 60-70's I was the only one I knew with asthma! Now every other kid is carrying a inhaler.

I can understand the parent's problem. When you go to an allergist's office you are requested to not wear perfume either.

[proteus_lives]

27. I wouldn't support this and I fucking hate perfume and cologne.

I have sinus problems and they affect me. But I have no right to tell people to wash it off in a public place. Even they fucking drench themselves in it.

[morgstress]

28. Teenagers offend me with their very existence - BAN THEM!

Can I propose another ban, one on teenagers speaking in public?? Whenever they open their mouths, I get a headache. How about that? Where does it end?

I agree that some people go too heavy on the fragrance, but honestly, do we need to get the law/authorities involved? This kid is going to be harassed 10 times as often now that he's the Big Baby who got perfume banned. As a perfume lover myself, I would personally shun him if I were in that school.

[Merchant Marine]

29. Sounds like he got "Axed"

"Axing" is something that happen when retarded teenagers decide to have a fight with cans of aerosol deoderant.

[Odin2005]

30. Good! Can we ban it at workplaces, too? The shit gives me autistic sensory overloads.

[cynatnite]

32. Out of respect for my two asthmatic friends and their health, I stopped wearing perfume...

in that particular classroom when I discovered how much it affected them. They can't control their lungs and the rest of their bodies as much as most people would like.

It was the sensible thing to do.

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[madmom]

36. I've left restaurants before finishing my meal because of people around me with

some much perfume that I could taste it.

[rd_kent]

37. One kid has allergies and they want to BAN perfume?

WTF?

[Odin2005]

42. Do you HAVE to use it? Will you DIE without it?

No? didn't think so.

[rd_kent]

44. No, but that is not the point.

And you know it.

[morgstress]

47. **clapping**

Exactly.

[morgstress]

46. Um, yes...

I'm a perfume fanatic, even make my own, and yes, to me a life without perfume is not worth living. No, I'm not being facetious, I'm being serious. I would move (and never return) if my city banned perfume a la the ridiculous Halifax ban in Canada.

[LeftyMom]

49. No offense, but you realize that's fucking crazy, right?

[rd_kent]

50. Calling someone "fucking crazy" IS offensive, regardless if you don't mean it to be.

And why is this person "fucking Crazy"?

[morgstress]

56. Thank you.

Thanks RD! And LeftyMom, to me a scent ban would be like banning music. Some of the beauty of the world would be taken away, if that makes any sense. Although in retrospect I was being a little overly dramatic about "life not being worth living", lol. I know perfumes can easily be over-applied, but can't we just have a quiet word with that person without bringing in the law/authorities? When did people lose the ability to handle touchy situations themselves, without lawyers?

Finally, in no normal situation does someone spray a whole bottle of scent on anything, let alone an item of clothing that's not theirs as these guys apparently did to this poor boy. That is unquestionably icky, but it obviously sounds like bullying, not normal scent usage.

[Posteritatis]

65. Because they claim they cannot live without trailing miasma? (nt)

[morgstress]

68. I admitted I was being overly dramatic, but it is a passion

Don't you have passions? I grew up with perfume. My mother was a perfume nut who shared her fragrances with me. I am passionate about perfume like I am about music and literature.

Also, I don't "trail miasma", I use scents lightly.

[pipi_k]

51. Another scent fanatic here...

I can't even buy hand cream or shampoo or detergent without taking off the cap and smelling it first. If I don't like the smell I won't buy it. Period.

I have so much perfume it's almost hilarious.


anyway, while I wouldn't say that life without perfume is meaningless (although close to it), I do know at least one person who suddenly contracted anosmia. This person said that her quality of life was severely impacted. I could empathize...life would be bleak (and somewhat dangerous in some ways) if we couldn't smell anything...

[morgstress]

58. I'm the same way

Yeah, I admit I was being a little too dramatic about the "not worth living" thing. :) But it would be close! I'm the same way about sniffing things in the store, and own an embarrassingly large perfume and scented lotion collection.

Wow, as a perfume-lover AND foodie, I would be miserable if I contracted anosmia...

[Posteritatis]

64. Halifax banned perfume citywide? That's news to this Haligonian. (nt)

[morgstress]

67. They did back in 2000... repealed since perhaps?

http://www.seattlepi.com/national/fume27.shtml

I read several articles like this one stating that back in 2000 Halifax banned the use of scents, even in shampoos and detergents. Posteritatis, maybe this has since been repealed? It does seem unenforceable.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

59. Yes, I have MPD. Multiple Perfume Dependence.

If I can't wear perfume, I break out in hives. I could die from my condition.

Hey, if the Multiple Chemical Sensitivity people get to make up diseases, why can't I?

[Shell Beau]

41. How would they enforce this? And what would the punishment be?

What if someone went to a department store and wandered around the perfume counter? Do they go home and bathe?

I have no problem with trying to help others. My brother was very asthmatic. I understand the seriousness of it. But this can be a slippery slope.

[SoCalDem]

43. Why not just create new schools

Asthma High
No-Peanut High
Perfume High
Jock High
Nerd High
Shy High

The whole school "experiment" started out as a central gathering place where all kids could learn things. The goal was to impart knowledge to them, so they could make their way as adults in the "real world" of adulthood.

There have always been groups-within-groups at school.. If your one kid is not able to attend with all the others, then perhaps home schooling is the way out.

PUBLIC schools are what they are,..PUBLIC..a place where kids of all sorts mingle. Granted, many are disruptive and may do things that "you" would rather not have happen, but in the real world, this is what happens all the time..

There are many things in my daily life that I wish I could make "go away", but I am just part of the whole, and the world will not conform to suit me..

Children need to learn this. School is a great place for them to learn that they are not the center of the universe.

[Quantess]

63. I disagree. In the "real world" post-public-school,

individuals are freer to make their own choices about their surroundings, and there are far more options for people to either avoid or seek certain experiences.

In school, you have few choices. Even in college, you can choose which classes to take, choose your professors, or drop classes without too much hassle. You can even choose where to sit. But in High School, students may not even have the option of moving away from an offensve smelling student.

[LeftyMom]

48. If he can't breathe around other students, the school needs to pay for a tutor.

I know of a case a bit like this where that happened. A lady I know has a daughter with a very severe dairy allergy. Mom explained to the school, and provided documentation, that just inhaling dairy is a problem and that the daughter could not be around anybody who was eating/had recently eaten anything with dairy in it (which is unusual, usually dairy allergies involve ingestion only. The girl has substantial other health issues.) First day the daughter goes to preschool, at lunch a boy next to her opens up a packet of goldfish crackers sent from home, she doesn't eat them but she must inhale some of the crumb dust, and that's enough, her airway shuts and off to the ER she goes. A week and a half passes and the girl winds up going to the ER several times, because it turns out the school can't effectively control what the other kids eat for lunch or what's in the hand lotion the aides put on themselves, etc.

Of course each serious reaction further primes the immune system and increases the potential for more serious reactions to smaller and smaller stimuli, so this was very bad news. She got a home tutor at public expense because otherwise she was probably not going to survive the year. If the school system couldn't make the school safe for her than they had to bring the school to her safe environment.

Honestly, that's what's going to have to happen here, because there's NO WAY that you can ensure 1000+ people use only scent free detergents, body care products, etc. Even if you supply them, some will use their own preferred items (and may have to because of their own allergies or other issues.) Especially with teenagers, and if some of them already have a history of triggering this kid's reactions intentoally, there's no way you can assume future compliance with his medical needs.

[ddeclue]

52. If he's that "sensitive" he needs to live in a bubble.

[meow2u3]

55. Half my family is allergic to perfume

My mom was; she had asthma attacks and couldn't breathe around someone wearing perfume. My older sister seems to be; and I'm allergic to certain perfumes, including colognes marketed to teen boys like Axe and Tag. I get asthma attacks from men's and teen boys' cologne.

There should be fragrance-free zones in schools and workplaces to accomodate those of us allergic to fragrances. It's a matter of accomodating people with disabling asthma and other respiratory disorders brought about by the exposure to perfumes. What really burns me up is when perfume wearers get mad at those who can't breathe around their favorite fragrance, as if the allergic simply dislike those who bathe in the stuff.

[GreenPartyVoter]

61. Our health facilities are fragrance-free around here. And even though I adore wearing

perfume, I married a guy who gets an instant headache from most scents.

[Quantess]

60. Great idea. I hope it goes through.

When I taught High School (briefly) there was a definite problem with kids spraying AXE on eachother, which of course created a cloud of air pollution for everyone in the vicinity.

I feel lightheaded whenever I walk past the perfume counters, and if I stay too long, I get a headache. I know I'm not the only one, and I know some people are more sensitive to perfumes than I am.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

62. I wonder how far this could extend

Scented bath soap? Scented bath oil? Scented shampoo or hair conditioner? Some of those linger on a person for quite a while.