To expect health care professionals, workers, etc. to not wear scents

[Bimbop5]

I don't understand why in this day and age that health care workers, meaning doctors, nurses, care aids, etc need to be told not to wear scents? They should know not to wear them due to asthma, sinusitis, multiple chemical sensitivity, etc, etc. And yet where I work they have to continually talk to these people and explain you cannot wear perfume or any scented products at work. It's ridiculous. People have to turn their care aids away due to them wearing scents and in turn are left trying to care for themselves when they are sick. It's nuts! It reminds me how smoking used to be allowed in hospitals and remember what the fight it was to finally ban this. I hope in my lifetime people will learn how much this hurts people with illness and allergies. I'm only 41 but man, we have so much to learn in society. People have a right to have clean air.

maggienolia, that's terrible you shouldn't have to be exposed to cigarette smoke,. Our workers tell clients they can't smoke at least half an hour before their appointment. If they do the workers are allowed to leave. And the patient will get a warning but if they continue their services will get cut.

Headofthehive55, awe I can see why! We have odor sprays that neutralize the odors but are not perfume. They are used in the hospitals and in our bathrooms at work.

I work as a Social Worker and I wear deodorant that can be smelt in the same way a perfume would. I get very warm and sweaty so if I didn't I would smell of sweat, which is much worse!

The Hospitals and residential homes I go to are very, very warm.

The problem is care workers are treated like complete shit.

If I was working for less than minimum wage I wouldn't be thrilled at being told I couldn't smoke or wear perfume.

One house that I went to where a colostomy patient lived had a horrendous stench when I got there. Checked colostomy - all fine.
It turned out to be a Camenbert cheese which was being matured in a cupboard.

By the way every lady I do personal care on wears scented talcs or deodorants. So any deodorant we wear would soon be masked.

People have a right to have clean air

This does not extend to telling everyone on their vicinity what they can put on their own bodies, or what they can eat etc. Healthcare worker does not equal drone you can control.

I remember seeing a notice on a toilet in a theatre (of the entertainment variety) in Montreal telling the theatre goers not to spray any perfumed products. I guess it's a Canadian thing!

I had a HV who used to turn up honking of perfume. I was very relieved that she never wanted to touch my baby as I'm prone to migraines and they'd have had to be bathed and changed after.
I don't think that deoderants are so bad and there are plenty old unscented ones, but I really struggle if people are wearing perfume, body spray or have used lots of fabric conditioner.

I am a HCP and we don't have a 'no scent' policy. I would say most of my colleaugues wear a subtle scent. I can't recall any patients who have complained.

It is not a standard policy here.

I'm not sure if you know but the wards can be hot and sweaty places.
Would you prefer your nurse to smell of sweat or of body spray or deodorant?

Where do you draw the line at no scents? No fragranced body wash or lotion or deodorant? No nice smelling shampoo?

In my experience this is a really odd thing to be annoyed about.

Yeah, YABU

Another NHS clinician here in a specialist neurological hospital. Never heard of a no-scent policy and most people I work with (thankfully) wear some kind of scented deodorant or body spray. Most of the patients also use scented products, and they're obviously off for MRIs, CTs etc all the time. It's obviously just a Canada thing.

Most hospitals have a no flower policy but that's because of infection control issues, not the scent.

Also, the 'chemicals' in scented body products are surely less damaging than the cleaning products used on the ward...? Our anti-sporicidal wipes are fierce. I'd definitely rather smell perfume!

Wow Bimbop5 it is really amazing to find someone talking about scent free things. If you tell people over here that you are allergic to fragrances they think you are batty, or explain that theirs is all natural etc etc, which doesn't make a difference to me as some essential oils make me feel terrible!

It is possible to find non-scent products in the UK fairly easily these days - Waitrose Pure range, and the Green People scent free are good. Most of the deodorant companies do a scent free roll on, and supermarkets have pure vegetable soap with no scent. But there is a real lack of awareness about the problems that scents can cause. People that I know with asthma inhalers, or children with persistently bad chests, don't even want to think about ditching their room fragrance sticks (bleurgh!), or perfume, or fabric conditioner.

But there is a real lack of awareness about the problems that scents can cause

You cannot expect the whole world to be scent free because a few people have a problem with it. It's just not how life works.

I found that products in the US, don't know about Canada, were much more heavily scented than in the U.K. Shampoo smell, for example, really lingered. So maybe that's why?

Tough one. I have a perfume allergy and it's a pain in the area when my dentist or optician has perfume or body spray on for example as it means I keep sneezing and my eyes puff up and get super itchy. But at the end of the day there isn't much I can do about it, just as I can't stop people spraying perfume on planes or on lifts and other enclosed spaces where I can't escape it, or supermarkets blasting scents out around the shop etc.

Also my perfume allergy is to all perfume regardless as to whether it's light or heavy. I mainly just have to deal with it as it impossible to avoid, and thankfully I only seem to get sore puffy eyes and sneezy/sore throat with second hand perfume.

I've managed to get most products for myself perfume free now (or have to make my own) but there's not much choice. I though things might get better after a programme came out on the BBC saying about how perfume turns into poisonous chemicals (for everyone) when in contact with air. It was in all the newspapers, but sadly nothing changed and there was no influx of brands making scent free versions lol.

It's a rubbish allergy but it's not as bad as people with latex allergies. Latex allergies cause anaphylactic shocks and sometimes sufferers can't even buy their life-saving Epi-pens as Boots regularly has latex balloons around the store.

When I was pregnant with DC1, I jokingly complained to the midwife that the smell of DH's aftershave had suddenly become horribly unpleasant. She told me that, because so many pregnant women struggle with various smells, she always tells her students never to wear perfume. So even if it's not official NHS policy, it seems that some awareness does exist.

Im with FREEZINGWINTER on this one. My FD is in hospital & his nurse today was right wiffy. Dove spray & soap needed

Even if you don't wear scented stuff, the volatile chemicals in non scented stuff will still be in the atmosphere. Only you don't realise you are breathing them in.

You could equally be intolerant to those chemicals.

I wear perfume and deodorant every day as do all of my colleagues! It wouldn't occur to me not too! I've been working for the same Trust for 21 years and it's deffo not a part of the uniform policy.....
Sometimes you need to have a quick sniff of your uniform if you've been dealing with a stinky patient!

As a nurse in the UK, I was taught in training never to wear perfume. I am surprised this is not common among other mumsnet HCPs.

I'd rather smell perfume than BO! What's the difference between deodorant and perfume though? Depending on which deodorant I'm wearing I can usually smell it - much better than the alternative.

I'm a nurse and I've not known it to be an issue, but I work in community mental health so it's not like I'm nursing seriously physically unwell people. And to be fair, many of the service users I work with smoke. That smell doesn't particularly bother me (I enjoy a fag or two of an evening but not during the day so others at work wouldn't necessarily know and wouldn't smell it) but I do understand it would cause some people as much distress, if not more, than smelling perfume on someone.