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.

I'm actually a qualified asthma nurse and I'm sure in some rare cases asthma,which is basically an allergic response in the vast majority of cases, is triggered by perfume but it can also be triggered by a load of other things including pollen pets and even flour (tough if you a baker). But it's impossible to remove most of these from people's lives. I agree if a career is visiting someone house and they know perfume causes a severe reaction then they need to be careful although I'm not sure how realistic this is, it's easy to get perfum on you uniform by handling a previous patient who wears perfume and as I said above we have one of those automatic airfreshers in our loo at work which something's sprays on you but in general you cannot expect healthcare workers not to use perfumed products on the off chance that it might exacerbate someone's asthma.
Pets or at least their dander frequently exacerbate asthma but you can't tell healthcare workers not to own pets. I know I frequently go to work with the odd cat hair on me only visible because my cats cream, and I'm sure I often have the odd dog hair on me as well invisible on my navy trousers because his hair is black.
We know that breathing in cigarette smoke on someone breath can be bad for asthmatics but staff are not told not to smoke, there'd be no one left if we did!

Juist because something is normal where you are does not mean you are superior to people who it is not the norm for. It doesn't mean you have it right and everyone else has it wrong.

I'm not talking about people dying left, right and center. But some do find these triggers. So why not err on the side of caution when dealing with already compromised people

And some people find cat hair to be a trigger. Or a hint of nut oil on a hand. Or talc, or god knows what else. Are you suggesting that all HCP's should be told to not touch anything that might potentially be a problem for someone?
If not, why is your issue with scents more important than anyone elses?

OP we don't have signs up anywhere in UK hospitals saying don't wear perfume it would be completely unenforceable. It's hard enough to enforce easy rules e.g. visiting hours without receiving endless complaints let alone something like this.

God you are sanctimonious and hectoring!

I'm frankly shocked at the number of people who have never heard of wearing no scents around asthmatics. Wow. It's 2016 and we've really not progressed. This is common knowledge

It isn't common knowledge because in the vast majority of cases IT ISN'T TRUE. I'm asthmatic, and wear perfume. Like most asthmatics I know.

Nuts are a significNt issue, we recently looked after a boy who couldn't even breath near nuts or touch them without causing an anaphylactic reaction, completely impossible to police especially at school, parents were surprisingly sanguine he just carried an epipen.

Scent may or may not trigger asthma. But then any other substance could.

For the vast majority of people asthma is not a problem. Nor are they allergic / intolerant to scents even if they do have asthma. I have to ask this question if all my patients, and never once has anyone ever told me they gave a problem with scent.

Presumably if it was enough if a problem they might realise?

However I do get a lot of patients asking for air freshener as they find the smell of faeces vomit inducing and the odour neutralisers do not work as well as air freshener / sprays.

Perhaps it's one of those areas where we are ahead, making our environment more comfortable for the majority of those in hospital.

My DS has severe asthma not exacerbated by perfume.
Secondly I used to run asthma clinics and didn't wear uniform so often wore perfume, not once did it cause an allergic reaction. I've also never met or heard of an asthmatic who's asthma was severely exacerbated by asthma and I'm used to be part of the asthma nurses forum.

I've actually heard of more people having asthma attacks as a result of the harsh chlorcleaning products used in hospital, than I have perfume/animal hair.

Occupational asthma caused by cleaning products is fairly common.
Pets including horses goats cows frequently exacerbate asthma.

Yanbu scents trigger migraines in me especially bases in popular perfumes, aftershaves and deodorants. I hate hate hate it.

I'm asthmatic and perfume doesn't affect me.

The OP does sound quite OTT regarding this topic. It's obviously a "thing" to ban scents in Canada, it's not in the UK. I have never in my 44 years come across anyone with a life threatening allergy to perfume. If we all avoided doing, eating or using anything to which one person was potentially allergic, we'd never leave the house. Or wear clothes. Or have a shower.

This thread has really upset me.

I have no sense of smell due to a neurological condition.

I don't know if I'm using 'scents', unless I check my deodorant bottle. I wear perfume rarely, brush my teeth and mouthwash frequently, because I don't know if my breath is offensive or not.

I would be utterly ashamed and embarrassed if my hospital turned me away because I smelled. I have got no idea how I smell, I try not to offend anyone with BO or excessive perfume, but I just don't know.

I was planning to go to Canada to visit family but will be giving it a wide berth if they have rules like that. I'd be too scared of needing treatment unexpectedly and this being an issue I cannot monitor, being ashamed if I've broken any rules.

Fwiw my moderately asthmatic child isn't affected by scents. Me, don't come near me with your smells!

I can't stand strong perfumy scents. I just feel they're masking the problem. One time when I was in the student dentist place the supervisor had such a nasty perfume on I almost gagged. I hadto try holding my breath which was really hard as my mouth was wide open. For some reason she was the only one that caused that reaction. I wish this sort of policy could be applied in the UK to health workers who come into close contact with patients.

user14746,
I think sometimes tone is difficult to show on the Internet. When I said I was shocked. It was genuine surprise I guess because it's commonly spoken about here. Not shocked like oh these people are idiots or that I think I am superior. Not at all. Genuinely wondering how we came about with this rule in Canada if it's so strange and OTT. So I was seriously surprised. I think Europe is much more advanced in a lot of areas then north America.
When I started this thread it was regarding our patient with difficulties and then people are asking my why my scent issue is more important than others. That's not the issue.
And
Coffeethrowtrampbitch, don't be nervous to come to Canada if you want to. No one's going to throw you out of anywhere. If you had to get treatment here and you were wearing perfume they would ask you not to wear it next time. Although some probably wouldn't notice. For instance, we had a lady come in and her perfume was very strong. So someone went and spoke to her. They didn't say get out etc. It's all about creating awareness. This lady was also from a different country so I'm sure she just didn't know. No one wants to shame anyone.

FrancisCrawford, I DO have asthma and allergies and almost died as a child.

But what if that animal affected someone else's disability? Such as a severe asthmatic with a dog allergy. Who gets right of way?

As a child I was in children's hospital every week until I was 12 for testing and monitoring. Every information session we went to, every doctor we spoke to said stay away from perfume as it can trigger attacks, which it did in me. So hence my surprise.

Perhaps you could spread awareness back in Canada that it's not the problem that it's made out to be.

Just because a dr told you it might be a trigger doesn't mean it is.

It's not just asthma strong scents affect. They leave me in agony. As they do many many other people.

I think they'd have to find a way of accommodating both people in this situation. Like perhaps one would work in a separate area. That would be a difficult one for sure.

I was in children's hospital every week until I was 12 for testing and monitoring for asthma. And every information session, every health care professional told us to not be around perfume as it can (not always) be a trigger. In my case it is. So that was another reason for my surprise.