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.

FrancisCrawford, totally makes sense. I think this may be a case of miscommunication. I agree that everyone's triggers are different. I still think Healthcare workers shouldn't wear scent. So we agree to disagree. :)

Headofthehive55,

You don't believe it can be a trigger?

IT is challenging when you find out that well known wisdom in one country is not followed in another. Or disputed or found to be false.

But the guide dog could kill one person. For the other they may bump into things or need to use their long cane instead.

I know which person for me "wins" there and if I had that issue in my team I'd ask the sight impaired person to leave the dog elsewhere.

Headofthehive55,

Maybe you could do your own research rather than just reading people's opinion on the net and I know my tone sounds bad as this is written but I don't mean it that way. If someone was having an asthma attack triggered by perfume I don't think you could say to them it's impossible and to suck it up. Not that you would say that but some might.

FrancisCrawford, yes definitely each case would have to be considered. It's difficult!

Yes anything can be a trigger.

However I think on balance to remove scents / air fresheners from wards particularly where there is a smell of faeces and or gangrenous limbs would be detrimental to patients well being. You may not be aware that in the uk patients are often on wards, not in separate rooms. So if you neighbour has a gangrenous toe you will smell it. I suspect most people would prefer the smell of scent not rotting flesh.

Tbh noxious smells masked by air freshener is sometimes worse.

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

They shouldn't have said that. For the vast majority, it isn't. IT can be a self fulfilling prophecy though, if you tell people perfume will affect them, they will believe it and misattribute.

I know which person for me "wins" there and if I had that issue in my team I'd ask the sight impaired person to leave the dog elsewhere

That would illegal and you could get int a lot of trouble for it.

And I'd fight my corner if it meant not having a dead employee on my hands which would land me in more serious trouble

If of course someone has a proven allergy to a substance then I think most people would avoid utilising that substance. However most people don't.

Whereas I have a reaction to newsprint. But I don't expect people to stop reading newspapers!

Yours is avoidable. Mine isn't. Strong scents cause me migraines, that is severe neurological pain.

The other thing I'd like banned in hospitals is strip lights again another trigger for me

Both my triggers are very common for people with migraine

And I'd fight my corner if it meant not having a dead employee on my hands which would land me in more serious trouble

You could fight it all you like, you'd lose. And really if someone is so deathly allergic that any dog anywhere near them will kill them and there is no accomdating them, how would they even get to and from work? And deal with anyone during the course of their day, any number of whom could have dog hairs on them?

Well it's only avoidable if no one brings a newspaper onto a ward! I can't avoid it if I was a patient?

You don't have to touch it.

Smells are in the air you get no choice in those

I think Canada is very different with our rules. For instance, no smoking allowed 7 meters close to a window, door or air vent. No smoking in sheltered bus stops, though honestly is you are the only person in there......., no smoking at public parks, playgrounds, mall parking lots. Most landlords won't rent to you if you smoke. This includes e-cigarette. No smoking in pubs, restaurants.
I'm trying to think of other ones that might seem odd.... you can't run your leaf blower at certain times. We don't have the usual 11pm no noise policy although most of us figure up until 11 noise is fine, instead you can complain about noise that is excessive at any time of day. Not construction but music. But honestly no one follows this. But like if your dog was constantly barking people could complain and you'd be spoken to by the bylaw people and if it continued you would be fined.
But we had a dog across the street that barked non stop, we didn't complain because he never barked at night.

Do you have these rules too?

PlayOnWurtz, your points are very valid.

"Smells are in the air you get no choice in those" agreed and you can't see them in advance to run away in time.

I'm a healthcare worker and I am allergic to perfume but I don't complain when my patients Have such strong Purfume on -and I end up covered in a rash, itching and sneezing.

The smell of the newsprint is indeed in the air. I don't need to touch it. I will react even if I am in the same room. Similar to your scent I suppose. It's the volatile inks that I inhale. But I recognise to ban newspapers in wards would be an extreme reaction. No pun intended.

I was a nurse for 30 years and still work as a health care professional and would have thought that this is blatantly obvious. I've never worn anything scented nor did I ever smell of cigarette smoke or anything else. When people are ill they often feel sick and perfumes can trigger nausea and vomiting never mind allergies etc. You would have thought that this would be common sense?

I used to get a lot of migraines and sometimes perfumes caused them. Other times, the same perfume did not cause them. I don't get as many migraines now, fortunately. I used to work with scented products, and did so even when I was suffering from a migraine, as there was no way of identifying what had triggered them. The most common causes were no more and no less likely to cause my migraines than anything else. Your triggers are yours alone. Others may have similar triggers, but there is not a list of things that trigger migraines for everyone than there is a list of things that trigger allergies and anaphylaxis.

DD1 suffers from dreadful allergies. She has been hospitalised many, many times due to horrendous reactions and has almost died. She also has very bad asthma and relies on a cocktail of drugs to stay alive. She has never, ever suggested that anyone should stop using scented products when in hospital. When she is as ill as that, perfumes are the least of her worries.

DD2, on the other hand, does not have asthma, but is quite allergic to all these wonderful, scent free products like Simple. She is fine with scented ones, though.

And as for banning service dogs, especially guide dogs, from the work place - I've never heard anything so stupid in my whole life. The world does not owe you a living and if you cannot work with someone who requires a guide dog, because you are allergic to it, you should be offered another position within the same company and if that is not possible, you have the choice of putting up with it or leaving. I am horrified that anyone should suggest that a person uses a cane instead. Have you ever heard of the Equalities Act? If not, I suggest you read up on it. If you get on the wrong side of it, you will regret it.

To digress slightly...I had to leave work early today as a temp was wearing very strong perfume and triggered a migraine.
Thankfully she won't be sat next to me tomorrow - but that's an hour I will have to make up somehow..
Not nice rushing home to vomit....wish there was a policy to cover us boring office workers !