Mary, in high tech firms they ban them under the guise of it keeping chemical spills from being noticed. It happened after complaints that some perfumes were causing an unhealthy work environment.

No to all the questions.
I really don't have the time or the will to worry about what someone else is wearing or how they smell.
I do try to avoid aggressive people and those with a tendency toward violence.
Iven

Pat and I always look for a side entrance into a Sears store for the same reason. We also only buy clothes from them on line instead of the brick and mortar store because the clothes in the store are next to the perfume section, men's to one side and women's to the other, and the clothes have become saturated with the smell. Even with repeated laundering, the smell has often impregnated the clothe too much to come out and therefore becomes unwearable for us.

A) YES
b) YES

I find it almost impossible to go into many stores that specialize in scented products: perfume, cologne, soap, even scented candles. I'll get a headache almost immediately.

Bath & Body Works: out.

Crabtree & Evelyn: out.

Many Halmark stores: out.

Ditto on the avoidance of these stores S2000. Pat and I do an informal "sniff test" whenever we are about to enter a store that we are not familiar with. If it fails the test, we turn around and walk right out.

There is a drug store/pharmacy chain in Canada that is probably one of, if not the largest chain in the country. A couple of years ago, they decided to put a very large perfume department right inside the entrance. You have to walk through it to get to the pharmacy. Imagine having a headache or migraine and you want to go buy something for it. The store/chain is called Shoppers Drug Mart. Pat and I shop at a Rexall or Pharmaplus drug store/pharmacies. They also have perfume aisles, but they are more avoidable.

We also have to do a sniff test when we go to a movie theatre (which isn't often) to find seats where we can watch the movie without being assaulted by scent. At restaurants we look for tables that are out of the main aisle and as far from others as possible, again to avoid the scents. All this is done quite invisibly to those around us. No one would suspect that is what we are doing. However, if we are doing it, then there must be others out there who also have negative reactions to scents who are doing the same type of things.

Frankly, the only scent that makes me sick is garlic... I once worked with a guy who reeked of garlic, not just his breath, his entire body radiated the awful odor. Why some people feel it is entirely acceptable to inflict this on others is a mystery...

While I'm in no way trying to defend your former coworker, please don't assume that all such people do this intentionally or maliciously.

My younger sister has no sense of smell, so she could easily apply too much perfume - or a wretched perfume - and be unaware of it. To her credit, she regularly asks her family to help her gauge the types and amount of perfume and cologne she wears, but it's possible that that would not occur to others with her affliction.

My wife likes some of the fragrences from these stores. When her birthday, our anniversary, or Christmas approaches, I try to go shopping with someone (e.g., our daughter), whom I can send into such a store as my emissary.

(I like the scents that my wife likes - in moderation - but I find the combination of all of the scents in the stores in such large quantities to be overwhelming.)

Garlic! I had a manager who ate raw garlic Thursday nights ans sweated it on Fridays. I told him and he switched to Friday night.

Ever see garlic in the store from Chistopher Ranch? They are in Gilroy Ca, nice family, and as a kid I loved the smell of garlic when they were processing in the fall.

Italians wear garlic for deodorant.

They eat kimchi for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bed time snacks in Korea. When they eat kimchi as a bed time snack it is the preferred method of birth control for Koreans.

The sense of smell often diminishes with age so older people are often announcing their age from a distance.

Tom and I have had problems over scent because it can be almost impossible to find some products in an unscented form at a reasonable price (and not all "unscented" products are).
You can dump a lot of money searching for tolerable products. The internet isn't much help because you can't tell if they are OK till they arrive.

Sometimes the store will put unscented products next to the scented ones (like dryer sheets) so now they are scented.

Tom has had to "get used to" some pretty loud smells just because I 'm working in public and I have to come off Professionally. I think it takes a lot more products for a Woman to look professional.
I'm not saying it is always possible but we have found a way to work around some of the problems.
The first few days feel like a Leper but over time a tolerance can build for some products.

Good Luck!

-Mary Mowder

Hi Mary,

Pat and I have exactly the same problems. I will PM you the link to our source for unscented products. And, you are sooooo right about the dryer sheets!!

Thanks for the P.M. RJE2.

Very helpful.

-Mary

My pleasure.

A: Yes. Perfume in a confined space will set off my asthma big time.

Yes and yes.

Here's something amusing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18959416

I have a problem with antiperspirants. The thought of rubbing a substance under your arms that doesn't wash off with soap really turns me off, and it can't be healthy either. Yet most of the products in the deodorant section of the drug store is this under arm glue. What's up with that stuff?

I think you are right Al and every once in a while there is a scare about the aluminum or zinc and such.

I'm sure nobody really cares but at one time smell was a valuable sense that gave a lot of information and helped regulate hormones of desire, nesting, cuddling, sleep, vigilance and all sorts of things.
I wonder at the consequences of totally messing up our evolved mechanisms.

I'm not willing to go back to no soap, just as I'm not going to give up my artificial light sources which totally change our circadian rhythms.

I have heard that people who take large doses of Chlorophyl don't get B.O. Or perhaps it effects their sense of smell. LOL

-Mary Mowder

Deodorant neutralizes odor, and washes off in the shower.