Minn. Lawmaker Wants Scent-Free Schools

[devilgrrl]

Minn. Lawmaker Wants Scent-Free Schools
By MARTIGA LOHN (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
March 10, 2008 3:19 PM EDT

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Those all-over body sprays that promise to turn teenage boys into babe magnets? Instead of attracting girls, they could be making them sick.

A Minnesota lawmaker proposed a bill Monday urging a fragrance-free educational campaign to discourage students from dousing themselves in scents that aggravate classmates with asthma and other health problems.

Odors that fill hallways come mostly from boys who douse themselves in body sprays like Axe, said Mikolai Altenberg, a senior at Minneapolis South High School. He said the smell is "indescribable" and unavoidable.

"You can smell it from 10 feet away," Altenberg said. "Mostly it's just guys who just think that putting Axe all over them is a substitute for showering."

more: http://enews.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20080310/47d4c050_3421_13345200803101547461438

:popcorn:

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Me too!

[catgirl]

2. I agree!

I have asthma, and the biggest trigger is "fragrance". The chemicals put in synthetic fragrance
can cause all kinds of medical issues, including blood and respiratory diseases. It's also
hoorible for pets (think "scented" litter).

I would love to see "fragrance free" sections in restaurants and airplanes too.

A big kick!!

[Mountainman]

3. Heck, just don't shower after gym class, then you can still stink with out the added cost.

[Diane R]

4. This is a great idea.

[catgirl]

5. One in eight students have asthma in Minneapolis!!??!!

My breathing was bad when I lived there for 3 years. After I moved, it improved a lot.
The jet fuel dumped from all the airplanes and the exhaust fumes from the traafic
doesn't help either.

The government should follow Europes footsteps and ban some of the worst chemicals
found in stnthetic fragrance. Unfortunately, the fragrance industry isn't regulated and
has too much influence over lawmakers ($$$$$$).

[Slagathor]

6. Then perhaps the lawmaker should establish a special charter school

My kids smell nice and eat peanut butter sandwiches. If your kids have a problem, move somewhere else. Too many concessions are made to an irritating few. It's time that people figured out that they are part of a much larger machine. And that machine runs on perfume and peanuts.

[uppityperson]

11. So having allergic reactions, including asthama and anaphylactic ones,

those are just the irritating few? Gotcha.

[Slagathor]

14. Yeah. It's extremely rare.

It simply isn't cost effective or fair to require everyone else to cater to the needs of so few. The few should go to a special school. Fewer than 125 people a year die from ground nut and tree nut allergies combined--in a country of 300,000,000 people.

[Lance_Boyle]

7. Ban the perfumes, bring back the smoking lounges!

A ban is infeasible, as a person's reaction to an odor is largely subjective. Is she wearing too much perfume? Let's assemble the school stank committee in the olfactorium for a thorough sniff-over. Is that body spray, or did he get some splashback at the diesel pump this morning? Better do a thorough molecular analysis. Why not just let people wear whatever stank they're gonna wear, and if it bothers somebody, accommodate the bothered by moving them?

I do have to wonder, though, why this is suddenly an issue following the rise of "body sprays." The over-perfumers and patchouli-slathered stankhippies have been around lots longer.

[dflprincess]

10. My work place is scent free

They got rather strict about this a while ago when one of the more scent sensitive employees was carried out on a stretcher (she recovered). I have a friend who is sensitive to scents and, like most people who are, she's sensitive to the petroleum based chemical that make up most perfumes and other scented products now days. She is not sensitive to all natural scents.

Look at it this way, the fewer colonges and perfumes that are used, the more oil we'll save.

[Lance_Boyle]

13. I don't believe such a policy is practicable for large employers,

or schools. There is a certain point at which accommodation needs to be more about helping the individual afflicted, rather than restricting everyone else. If ten employees are sickened, there's a problem with the odor. If it's just one employee, s/he may just need a mask, or to telecommute.

As to the problem of people wearing too much perfume, I'll concede that it is a problem, but one that is best addressed through mocking and social ostracism and not broad policy. For those who survive the mocking and the ostracism and still don't "get it," I reiterate my suggestion of allowing smoking. Most of those stanks are highly flammable.

[dflprincess]

8. I don't have asthma but a few years ago I ferried my nephew and his friend to a Junior High dance

It was February and I had to drive with my window part way down because the little darlin's had doused themselves so heavily with cologne I thought I was going to choke to death.

I never noticed my nieces using perfume so heavily.

[devilgrrl]

12. I have to roll the windows down when my Step-brother is in my car.

Gee whiz - it's insane!

Anyone remember those Bud-Lite commercials featuring "Mr. Way-too-much-cologne-wearer"? He's my step-brother.

[ScreamingMeemie]

9. I kid you not, you can smell our neighbor's son through the front

door when he comes over.

[sybylla]

15. Sorry, I disagree with the legislator

As someone with asthma and allergies who does sometimes have trouble with fragrance, I'd rather sit in a classroom of nice smelling boys with a stuffy nose than a classroom that smells like a boys locker room after 3 hours of football practice. Having raised two boys myself, I have to say there are periods in a boy's life when showering is shunned.

I much prefer Axe to unshowered boys. Apparently, there is nothing boys can do to win with girls these days.

Besides, no one made this argument when I was in high school and girls doused themselves in perfume and body sprays. Smacks of sexism to me to suddenly care. I have friends from Europe who say that American's are the best smelling people hands down. I'd kind of like to keep it that way.

[Horse with no Name]

16. I'm allergic to perfume

I like this idea...but it will never fly.