Does a Baby Need to Wear Perfume?

As everyone who knows me will tell you, synthetic fragrance such as air fresheners, Glade, Febreze  and others that companies have brainwashed our culture into believing we must use to "freshen" the air in buildings like our homes, our workplaces, our churches and schools can make me seriously ill.

Television ads for sprays that cover scents show outdoor scenes with sunshine and breezes blowing. But the truth is the products made by these companies contain very harmful chemicals, some that cause cancer and many that bring on asthma, especially in children and older adults. Childhood asthma has been on the rise in this country in recent years. Could it be because of the household products used in homes and schools? Could it be the personal care products used by mothers and fathers?

Recently a company in Italy decided that babies don't smell sweet enough. They are manufacturing perfume for little children. Read more here.

I have learned through my research that babies are often born toxic from the chemicals ingested by their mothers during pregnancy. These women who use perfume, body wash, shampoo, makeup, and soap filled with chemicals have no idea what they are doing to their unborn children. 

Small children and older people do not have strong immune systems and that is why this demographic falls victim to the flu, pneumonia, and other diseases. They should be protected from the pollution of the air they breathe because their respiratory systems are most vulnerable. 

Marcia, a young mother, told me that she often rushed her son to the emergency room when he couldn't breathe due to asthma.  Then  she told me that when he rode in the car with her, he opened a window and hung his head out. He hated her perfume, he said.

She laughed and said he would have to get used to it. She made no connection.

This mother is the type who would likely dab a chemical fragrance on a young baby. She had no idea that she was poisoning her own son with her perfume. She also used dryer sheets on her laundry. For that reason I could not have her come to my house. The chemicals used in dryer sheets like Bounce can easily bring on an episode of asthmatic bronchitis for me and others like me who have that sensitivity. Some people break out in rashes when they use dryer sheets. Often no one makes the connection and they spend hundreds of dollars on a cure for their rash when all they had to do was stop using the dryer sheets. (I find the little bumpy blue balls work fine in my dryer)

The Environmental Workers Group acts as a watch dog for all of us. They do the research on products the manufacturers don't want us to see. Because the FDA has not required manufacturers to list the chemicals in the fragrances they use, we, the public, do not know what we are buying or how much we can safely ingest through the skin or in our lungs. 

Tests have shown that our indoor air is more polluted than the outside air, and people in the work force have no recourse if others in their offices use perfumes, colognes, or air fresheners. 

If the public only realized that none of us want to infringe on the rights of others to wear perfume, just don't infringe on our health by wearing it in public places. Don't put perfume on that new baby who can't defend himself. What is sweeter than a clean baby with a little baby powder, or just plain mild soap?

Remember that what goes on the skin, goes inside the body, into developing organs - brains and lungs. 

Other articles on chemical fragrances

The Environmental Workers Group

Safe Cosmetics

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

Indoor pollution is killing me!

This scene is outside our house where the air is healthier than it is inside. Pristine and pure, our air we breathe must be as clean as the driven snow. photo by Barry Beall

Do you know anyone with chemical sensitivity? You might have it yourself. Do perfume and other fragrances bother you? Can you use Clorox in your laundry without it taking your breath or making you cough?

I first noticed my chemical sensitivity when anyone wearing perfume came close to me. My husband had to stop wearing the cologne I'd always loved on him. When I was in the room with my sister June, I had to stay as far from her as possible because she loves perfume. I had to leave our church choir one Sunday because a sweet lady wore her favorite perfume.

This is a malady that is affecting more and more older people. It also hits children pretty hard. One woman said her two year old suddenly developed asthma and she learned it was from the cleaning products she used in the house. The child, whose immune system is not as strong as an adult's, couldn't handle the dangerous chemicals polluting the house.
This week, although I've gone as green as possible in my house, we are having a renovation done and after the plumber had come to put in the pipes for the washing machine, I had the worst attack I've had in many years. Turns out it was the glue used on the PVC piping. The harsh chemicals took my breath and I had to go outside to breathe. We closed off the new laundry room, placed an air filter machine in the living area but I had to retire to my little cubby hole of a room with my own air cleaner which runs day and night, close my door and hibernate.

When we can't get oxygen into our lungs our bodies shut down. My brain stopped working properly. I grew extremely sleepy, and coughed and wheezed until my throat hurt. I felt like my chest was weighed down with heavy bags, and I couldn't empty my lungs.

After that experience, my system was so overloaded that everything triggered asthma for me. It has been a hard week because of this ,and I can't wait until John finishes his work and we can, hopefully, clean the air in the house and get rid of the indoor pollution that seems to be killing me. Did you know that we have about 85% more pollution inside our houses than we have in the outside air?
My sweet sister, Gay, who has come up this week from Atlanta to help me, discovered today that her hairspray brings on my asthma attacks. She was so sure she had an unscented hairspray that would not bother me, but I can smell it on her clothes, and it triggers a coughing spell and difficulty breathing.

I am hoping that within a few days, I'll feel better but until then I might have to become a hermit and stay in my little room with my computer.