to think that air fresheners and over perfumed detergents should be banned

[vezzie]

Someone said that "having a no-smoking section of a restaurant is like having a no-pissing section in the swimming pool".
Now it is not allowed to smoke in indoor public places because this principle is generally understood.

So why are we subjected to the poisonous stink of fake perfumes everywhere? They make some people unwell, bring them out in rashes, and can't be actually good for anyone.

Sometimes whole families of people walk past you outdoors and you get a sickening waft of fabric conditioner emanating from their freshly washed sports wear. I feel sorry for 13 year old boys who are made to smell like fake flowers, like their weird misguided over-house-proud mum has marked her territory like a cat.

Sometimes you sit down in a pub and feel like you are being gassed because one of those vile things has been plugged into the wall behind you. God help you if you have ordered food.

I have bought things on ebay that come from air freshener houses and if they are not washable they are unusable.

What purpose does this serve, other than make uniliver or whoever rich? And am I the only one who can't stop sneezing and is coming out in spots?

You have a very sensitive sense of smell. I dislike fake perfumes as well but I don't smell them as much as you do - especially outdoors.

I do HATE air fresheners - never understood why people can't open windows instead.

I watched a programme once about how many chemicals we expose ourselves too every day and they had one woman who had about 40 of those dreadful Glade puffy things dotted around her house. It must absolutely stink. We don't have anything, not even in the loo, open the window I say!

They make my hyperventilate, so yes - it drives me crazy when people feel the need to spray perfumes on planes where I physical can't get off and get some air and it annoys me that people just don't think.

However, I reckon the difference is, only people with allergies are seriously affected by other people's perfumes. And you can't change the whole world because of a few people's allergies.

Hi wasabi - very balanced response - where is the traditional AIBU flaming? I was hoping to find out what they are for, as legions of angry women would come on with pitchforks to tell me why air fresheners and fabric conditioners are the corner stones of their domestic routines.

Hmmmm, yes, I think you probably are the only one. Your third paragraph was particularly I thought. Why so bothered?

I agree. But possible don't feel quite sos strongly

Why is it OK for everything to stink of a chemical just because one person thinks it's nice? When I'm running a lungful of someone's second hand fag smoke is vile. But so is a waft of over-enthusiastically applied aftershave. And what is wrong with the smell of clean clothes. Why do they need to stink of pretend flowers?

Hi laweaselmys - again, disappointingly rational.
but - even if not everyone has an allergic response, can they be good for anyone?

I don't have a particularly keen sense of smell, but I do like certain smells like lavender essential oil on a pillow or baking bread/brewing coffee. How do you feel about them? Or is it only "fake" smells like cheap fabric softener and air fresheners that grate?

If you are sensitive to certain smells then really you're a bit stuck since with large groups of people/food outlets/etc there will always be strong smells of one kind or another. I suppose it's a bit like having sensitive hearing and people's normal-level chatter and traffic noise seeming overpowering.

How ridiculous! Let's ban everything we don't like or find unpleasant! Boom, there goes most of the human population.

We don't have the air freshners, I dislike them, but most of the windows in this house are stuck shut. It's a rental house, too.

I do like perfume, however.

I don't do flaming vezzie - the threads that make me furious I tend to avoid.

Why don't you try a SAHM/dodgy nurseries thread? That should get the pitchforks out.

I love fabric softener. It's like the smell of fresh bread or freshly cut grass to me - divine.

Agree that air fresheners are generally vile, though, Ditto to those overpowering 'Yankee' scented candles and pot pourri.

I wouldn't go so far as to ban them, though.

I agree with you but I do love the smell of certain fragrances like natural oils, lemon and lavender, a very slight perfume here and there.

But with you on everything else it's gross, and worse when people try to mask the smell of poo with strong air freshener YUK

eyeballs - fair enough, I don't have to get so worked up about someone else's laundry in an outdoor space, it is just the mindset that the perfumes are harmless and can be high handedly sprayed around without consulting anyone that usually goes with it that bothers me.

A friend of a friend wears aftershave that makes it impossible to smell anything else when he is in the room, and makes my eyes water. It is selfish, the equivalent of turning up to a social gathering and going "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHH" at the top of your voice continuously the whole time regardless of other people trying to chat. You can't smell the food, any of other people's more subtle smells, flowers, rain, etc, all the interesting background smells that form a sense of place. you just get "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHH", and it hurts!

squirrel - that is exactly the sort of natural background smell that is nice and you are aware with it in a room mixed with other things and it is part of the sense of place and the people who are there. People who wear subtle perfume that doesn't overpower don't bother me either, it all adds to the gentle mix.

I prefer the smell of fabric conditioner and deoderant to BO and stale clothes though

And i dont mind air freshners(not 40 in one house fgs) its better than walking in a room and smelling someones moldy feet or stale dog

Some folk need help in the smell department (unclean people) some dont

Personally i wish i could carry my own little bottle of fresh air, to spray on the unwashed when im in queues

oh Mil has those air freshners that poof out at certain times, it is bizarre, your sitting there eating dinner and you hear a 'poof' and then suddenly the room smells or artifical flowers instead of yuor roast in front of you

crushwitheyeliner - or worse still, air freshener-over-oldish-cat litter [gag gag gag rolls around making childish exaggerated puking noises like 10-year-old boy]

Haha... my pet mice smell a bit, so I bought a Hyacinth! Does the job.

I must kick DP up the arse to clean them out tonight. I'm pg so can't do anything pooey...

Well the woman whose house I went to view on Saturday could have done with some air-fresheners in her life. Nothing like the smell of dog to put you off a house.

I actually like the smell of fabric softener. I am a mumsnet pariah.

I don't like air freshener at all, however at Christmas I make pomanders and teh clove/orange smell is absolutely divine (and very Christmassy).

The worst of all is Shake and Vac. My gran used to cover the house in this. I can still smell the vile smell. She used Zoflora detergent to clean her loo with as well, really strong floral smell which was hideous. I cannot believe that these 2 products are still on sale, it is so 70s retro it's like soemthing from Abigail's Party.

DH's stepmother was a charming woman in many many ways but on visits to her you really needed s gas mask and goggles. Every room has it's own different scent. All her pot-pourri was violently scented - mum used to make it from rose petals and various spices - the ones SMIL bought had never been near a flower. And little bottles of spray everywhere. And her sheets smelt of some sort of highly scented perfume. To start with it was nice to snuggle into clean sweet-smelling sheets but by the end of the night, added to constant CH and windows that appeared to be welded shut, we'd wake up feeling really rough. We used to be desperate to go out and find some cow shit to smell

Zoflora [vomitvomitvomitvomit]WHY would anybody use this stuff?? My mother uses it and it permeates everything in her house, it makes me want to throw up. Its awful - and as for air fresheners - WHY would you want to have a waft of chemicals in your house every fifteen minutes - i just don't get it - i mean, its not exactly like they smell nice. My mother buys clothes for my DD at charity shops etc and i have to wash it ALONE in the washing machine twice before i can put it on DD, its vile vile vile VILE i tell ya.

I love the smell of dettol though

I so hate the smell of air freshener. It makes me want to heave. TBH I dont think it is much beter than any of the smells it is trying to hide.

Not keen on fabric conditioner either. Friend of mine washed dd's school jumper as it had been left round hers. I was grateful but dd was complaining about the smell of it as the fabric conditioner was overpowering. Took 2 washes and lots of line drying for the smell to fade.