Hat's Off to Marriott's Grande Ocean for their Clean Indoor Air

I like to give credit where credit is due. In my travels over the past fifteen years, I've found that most motels and hotels pollute their indoor air with "air fresheners" and room deodorizers. So, to combat that trend, I call ahead. I speak to someone in housekeeping. Usually when I explain the result of my breathing the air in a room that has been "sprayed" or cleaned with products that include strong chemicals or fragrance, the housekeeper is sympathetic to my plight. If possible and if I have called early enough they make every effort to see that my room is safe for me. I reward them as best I can with a tip. That makes my request more lasting in their memory.

Thank the Folks Who do it Right.

I have named places in the past that are understanding of the needs of us who have serious consequences from polluted indoor air. I want to say that the housekeeping staff of the Marriott's Grande Ocean where we stayed in Hilton Head, SC was superb. Bryan promised me he would see that there were no toxic fragrance products used in our villa. And there were none. The soaps were not offensive, the sheets had not been dried with dryer sheets, and no fragrance had been sprayed in the rooms.

I don't know if that is the normal procedure for this resort or if my phone call made a difference, but I will continue to make that call when I travel.

Pulmonologists advise their patients to avoid triggers that cause asthma or respiratory illness. They say it as if it's a simple thing to do. But we encounter triggers everywhere we go. I have to move when a woman wearing perfume comes and sits at a table beside me, but sometimes it takes only a few whiffs to start my throat closing up.

Most of the patients in hospitals are bombarded with triggers that make them sick, from cleaning products to the personal body products used by the staff. Children suffer from the products used in their homes by well-meaning parents. They suffer at school from the cleaning products used to kill germs when there are other gentler products that will suffice.

I hope one day we can travel and stay at motels that automatically use green, fragrance-free products that don't make us sick. Until then I wish that all of my readers would take notice of businesses using safe non-toxic products and would compliment the staff or management. If we don't let them know, they can't learn the importance of safe indoor air. 

Click the links below to read what others say about this problem.

http://allergies.about.com/od/medicationallergies/a/mcssyndrome.htm

 

http://healing.about.com/cs/mcs/a/chemsensitive.htm

 

http://healing.about.com/b/2003/12/05/ill-effects-from-offensive-scents.htm