Scent Ban Update
Fragrance-free schools eyed -ON
September 2, 2006
TORONTO — A Toronto school board is looking into the possibility of making its schools fragrance free.
Trustees at the Toronto District School Board have voted to form a fragrance-free environment work group to look into a possible perfume ban.
Trustee Josh Matlow persuaded his colleagues to follow the example of schools in Halifax and Calgary and investigate the possibility of a scent-free school system.
In the meantime, trustees have voted to launch an awareness campaign to persuade staff and students to tone down the use of perfume sprays.
The school board is one of the largest in Canada, with 553 secondary and elementary schools and 270,000 students.
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Catching whiff of a scent ban
May 27, 2006
By DEREK PUDDICOMBE, OTTAWA SUN
By DEREK PUDDICOMBE, OTTAWA SUN
City looking to curtail fake fragrances
First pesticides and now perfumes.
Next week the city will begin the debate on whether or not to ban people from wearing perfumes and colognes, or other artificial fragrances in city buildings, community centres, sports facilities and on OC and Para Transpo buses, including light-rail transit.
The city’s health, recreation and social services committee will kick start the discussion June 1, when it introduces a report that recommends the creation of a scent-free environment in the nation’s capital.
It’s aim is to protect those who have strong allergies to scents.
HOSPITAL AN EXAMPLE
“The origin is, there are people who become disabled because of these fragrances,” said Bay Coun. Alex Cullen.
Cullen said the city won’t begin the discussion at the point where it will look at a total ban, but will start small with a public education program.
He said the campaign, which would have to have consent from council, would be more “persuasive than prohibitive” and that the committee is looking at the Ottawa Hospital as a role model.
The hospital already encourages its employees to limit, if not completely refrain from, wearing artificial scents.
“It (the city’s policy) won’t be as stringent as to send someone home,” Cullen said.
PHASED IN APPROACH
The city’s environmental advisory committee — which originated the report — is not singling out perfumes and cologne, but is also including scented soaps, deodorants, hairsprays, cosmetics, household and industrial cleaning products, and numerous body fragrance products.
While a ban hasn’t been ruled out, a phased in approach is considered to be easier to implement at first before moving to a “mandatory program.”
But although there seems to be some support from health, recreation and social services committee members, city staff have refused to give the go ahead because there’s no money to launch such a campaign.
SIGNS COSTLY
The report indicates that to plaster signs on every OC Transpo transit vehicle for one year would cost taxpayers $87,000, and another $10,000 to print and install 2,000 signs in about 400 municipal buildings.
The report suggests that everyone should have a safe and healthy environment in which to live and work, but “people are reluctant to tell co-workers or colleagues that their perfumes are making them sick.”
And that’s why Cullen says it’s important to educate people first rather than simply throwing a bylaw at them.
“It starts with changing attitudes first,” he said.
poll:
Council is debating whether to restrict citizens from wearing excessive perfume at city facilities. Should the city be sticking its nose into this issue?
Yes, strong odours can be a serious health hazard for people with environmental sensitivities. 44%
No, it’s just the latest attempt by the city to unnecessarily regulate our lives. 56%
Total Votes for this Question: 1014 -May 28/06 12:10 AM EDT
Yes, strong odours can be a serious health hazard for people with environmental sensitivities. 44%
No, it’s just the latest attempt by the city to unnecessarily regulate our lives. 56%
Total Votes for this Question: 1014 -May 28/06 12:10 AM EDT
Advisory committee gives scent policy the sniff test, Susan Sherring writes
Expect move to raise stink
Expect move to raise stink
By SUSAN SHERRING, OTTAWA SUN Thu, January 5, 2006
COULD there possibly be anything left for Ottawa City Council to get its hands on to legislate?
Sometimes it seems there’s nothing left that council could find to regulate.
You can’t smoke in the workplace, you can’t smoke in the bar — in fact, now you can’t smoke immediately outside municipal buildings.
You can’t make too much noise late at night, even if it’s in your own home and your doors are closed and your windows are shut.
You can’t party outside local bars if it disturbs the neighbours, and while you can still use pesticides, don’t count on spraying them on your lawn too much longer.
Sometimes it seems there’s nothing left that council could find to regulate.
You can’t smoke in the workplace, you can’t smoke in the bar — in fact, now you can’t smoke immediately outside municipal buildings.
You can’t make too much noise late at night, even if it’s in your own home and your doors are closed and your windows are shut.
You can’t party outside local bars if it disturbs the neighbours, and while you can still use pesticides, don’t count on spraying them on your lawn too much longer.
Is there really anything left to legislate?
As a matter of fact, there is.
Get a whiff of this: A city advisory committee believes councillors should look into controlling the use of scented products.
Advisory committees are made up of members of the general public and are designed to advise council about special issues of concern.
Recently, the environmental advisory committee set its sights — or, should we say, noses — on scented products in the city’s workplaces.
It’s an idea that’s sure to drive the public — many of whom already believe the city too frequently puts its snout in places it just doesn’t belong — crazy.
BUILDINGS, BUSES
The recommendation by the environmental advisory committee wants to see a scent policy established for municipal buildings, including community and sports centres, and OC Transpo buses
Won’t the bus drivers be happy to hear that not only do they have to secure exact change and look for cheaters boarding without a pass, but now they may need to give transit users the sniff test before allowing them to board.
Or, as one senior staffer put it, if you want a job at City Hall, you may need to have a really big nose to qualify.
The advisory committee’s target isn’t just perfumes and colognes. It’s also singling out scented soaps, deodorants, hairsprays, cosmetics, household and industrial cleaning products, and numerous body fragrance products.
What? No Hugo Boss cologne in the workplace?
Paul Koch, the chairman of the advisory committee, said he knows neither the public nor city council have the stomach right now for yet another debate on yet another bylaw.
But that doesn’t mean it’s wrong to bring the idea forward.
As Koch says, it has to start somewhere.
The environmental advisory committee suggests any policy should be phased in, starting with a public education campaign that would simply ask people “to be considerate of others who may have reactions or sensitivities to scented products, and urge people to observe the program by using the many unscented products that are available.”
‘NOT LEADING A CRUSADE’
Eventually, the recommendation suggests the restrictions should become mandatory.
Bay Coun. Alex Cullen said it’s an issue that’s worth exploring.
“But not even I think it’s something we should develop a bylaw for. I’m not leading a crusade on this one,” he said.
But Cullen pointed out that 10 years ago, people didn’t think a ban on smoking in bars would work, and now people in Ottawa expect it.
“Common sense should apply even if it’s in short supply at City Hall,” said Innes Coun. Rainer Bloess.
Deputy City Manager Steve Kanellakos said while the original plan was to discuss the recommendations at this month’s health committee meeting, there’s still too much work to be done.
For starters, he said, the city’s medical officer of Health Dr. Dave Salisbury needs to be contacted to see whether this is an important health issue and, among other things, city staff need the opportunity to comment on how a change in cleaning products might affect them.
Kanellakos admitted that given everything that’s taken place at City Council, he wasn’t convinced the timing was right for such a new policy. It may have to wait.
Now that makes sense. Or is that scents?
As a matter of fact, there is.
Get a whiff of this: A city advisory committee believes councillors should look into controlling the use of scented products.
Advisory committees are made up of members of the general public and are designed to advise council about special issues of concern.
Recently, the environmental advisory committee set its sights — or, should we say, noses — on scented products in the city’s workplaces.
It’s an idea that’s sure to drive the public — many of whom already believe the city too frequently puts its snout in places it just doesn’t belong — crazy.
BUILDINGS, BUSES
The recommendation by the environmental advisory committee wants to see a scent policy established for municipal buildings, including community and sports centres, and OC Transpo buses
Won’t the bus drivers be happy to hear that not only do they have to secure exact change and look for cheaters boarding without a pass, but now they may need to give transit users the sniff test before allowing them to board.
Or, as one senior staffer put it, if you want a job at City Hall, you may need to have a really big nose to qualify.
The advisory committee’s target isn’t just perfumes and colognes. It’s also singling out scented soaps, deodorants, hairsprays, cosmetics, household and industrial cleaning products, and numerous body fragrance products.
What? No Hugo Boss cologne in the workplace?
Paul Koch, the chairman of the advisory committee, said he knows neither the public nor city council have the stomach right now for yet another debate on yet another bylaw.
But that doesn’t mean it’s wrong to bring the idea forward.
As Koch says, it has to start somewhere.
The environmental advisory committee suggests any policy should be phased in, starting with a public education campaign that would simply ask people “to be considerate of others who may have reactions or sensitivities to scented products, and urge people to observe the program by using the many unscented products that are available.”
‘NOT LEADING A CRUSADE’
Eventually, the recommendation suggests the restrictions should become mandatory.
Bay Coun. Alex Cullen said it’s an issue that’s worth exploring.
“But not even I think it’s something we should develop a bylaw for. I’m not leading a crusade on this one,” he said.
But Cullen pointed out that 10 years ago, people didn’t think a ban on smoking in bars would work, and now people in Ottawa expect it.
“Common sense should apply even if it’s in short supply at City Hall,” said Innes Coun. Rainer Bloess.
Deputy City Manager Steve Kanellakos said while the original plan was to discuss the recommendations at this month’s health committee meeting, there’s still too much work to be done.
For starters, he said, the city’s medical officer of Health Dr. Dave Salisbury needs to be contacted to see whether this is an important health issue and, among other things, city staff need the opportunity to comment on how a change in cleaning products might affect them.
Kanellakos admitted that given everything that’s taken place at City Council, he wasn’t convinced the timing was right for such a new policy. It may have to wait.
Now that makes sense. Or is that scents?
*This will show how first you advertise to make people aware there must be a problem, then you suggest not mandate, then you put in place legislation. This is the way you make an issue and how to have it seem supported by the public. -Lynda Duguay
One City Turns Up Its Nose Against the Use of Perfumes
By Larry M. Greenberg
July 28, 1999
July 28, 1999
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — The perfume industry’s worst nightmare is unfolding here in this scenic port city on a hill.
A school sends a substitute teacher home to shower off her perfume before she can return to work. Hospitals order patients to towel down if they’re too heavily scented. A church asks parishioners to leave their “fragrant offerings” at home.
The fight against perfumes and scented products is a small but impassioned one. And nowhere else has it advanced quite as far as in this seaside provincial capital, population 350,000. Most of Halifax’s public institutions, and a growing number of its private businesses, come right out and ask people to abstain from using perfume. Some even require that they be “scent-free.”
“Wow. They’re way ahead of us,” says Claudia Miller, associate professor of environmental and occupational medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center, in San Antonio, and co-author of a book on chemical sensitivities. Halifax “is doing something that’s beyond what any other community is doing,” she says.
The incidence of environmental illness and chemical sensitivities hasn’t been widely studied, but anecdotal evidence suggests some asthma patients and others do suffer respiratory reactions to chemicals in perfume and other scented products. While only a smattering of schools, clinics and other public buildings in the U.S. have acted on calls for scent-free environments, such calls have met with wider response in Canada. In Ottawa, for example, public buses ask riders to leave scents at home. A high school outside Toronto is going fragrance-free.
In comparison, Halifax, perched on the edge of the continent and hit by a steady sea breeze, has become fixated on smells. At the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, home to Symphony Nova Scotia, signs in the lobby request that patrons make it a fragrance-free evening. The Halifax Chronicle-Herald newspaper prohibits its 350 employees from using perfume, after-shave, scented deodorant or shampoo — even strong-smelling mouthwash — on the job. Andrea Garson, the newspaper’s personnel manager, says, “It’s no different from a business’s vacation policy. Either you abide by it or you don’t work there.”
Antifragrance policies are the norm at most of the city’s workplaces, says Alexander Ross, a top manager at the Halifax operation of Convergys Corp., a Cincinnati supplier of telephone customer-service. Within a month of opening up the 1,400-employee center last fall, Convergys declared it a scent-free environment, acting on a request from several employees. Reminders pop up on computers when employees log on, and warning signs are posted in restrooms. Violators are sent home to take a shower, on unpaid time.
Why have Haligonians so readily embraced the antifragrance movement? There are a few theories. One is what Canadians generally see as their greater willingness to sacrifice individual rights for the public good — especially as compared with, say, Americans.
Another possibility is a frightening incident in 1991 that few people here have forgotten: Hundreds of staff members at the Camp Hill Medical Centre fell ill from what was widely regarded as poor indoor air quality. The hospital says it doesn’t know what caused their sickness but acknowledges there were problems with the ventilation system, including that it was sucking in fumes from the kitchen dishwasher. It has since repaired the system. But many of the workers remain sick to this day.
In the years following that episode, labor unions began demanding cleaner air in other hospitals, and soon schools, government buildings and other public places began voluntarily posting fragrance-free notices. The bans, however, haven’t been enacted into law.
Still, as the city’s antifragrance forces move off the fringes and into the mainstream, perfumiers are getting a glimpse of their worst-case future. So far, they don’t like what they see.
“At first I thought it was a tempest in a teapot. I mean, they can’t be serious, right?” says Patrick Carroll, general manager of Calvin Klein Cosmetics (Canada) Ltd., an Oakville, Ontario, licensee of the fashion designer. “Then I started looking at our numbers. Our [Nova Scotia] business has certainly stagnated and probably declined, which is not the case for the rest of the country.”
Maxwell Moulton, principal of Halifax’s Clayton Park Jr. High School, says students willingly comply with a strict fragrance ban. “If I have two kids a week that come with any smells on, that’s a busy week,” he says. Offenders are sent home to shower. About 80% of Halifax schools now have some form of scent-free policy, according to the Halifax school board. “You’re going to have a generation that is not accustomed to using scented products,” Mr. Moulton adds. “It will become quite natural not to buy them.”
Retailers can already measure the effects. Marilyn Pellerin, fragrance manager for Mills Brothers, an upscale apparel store in the city’s bustling historic downtown, says perfume sales have fallen off by about a third compared with five years ago. As scent-free policies have proliferated, she adds, the store has shrunk its perfume-selling space by 25%.
The fragrance industry is treading lightly to avoid a confrontation that could backfire and cause scent bans to spread. The Canadian Cosmetics, Toiletry and Fragrance Association, based in Toronto, is distributing pamphlets entitled “Enjoying Your Fragrance,” which define a “personal ‘scent circle’ ” with a radius of about one arm’s length. And it is lobbying public officials in Nova Scotia.
“We’ve been lumped together with legitimate hazards in the workplace” such as smoking, says association spokesman Carl Carter. “There is no medical evidence to suggest that scented products cause disease.” Advocates of fragrance-free policies say that is simply because adequate studies haven’t been done.
Some companies are taking the offensive. The Bay department store, a unit of Hudson’s Bay Co., is planning an event right inside a big hospital trauma unit in September to promote Clinique unscented cosmetics. Louise Smith, the store’s manager, says nurses complained to her that they couldn’t wear makeup to work. “We want to show them they can still wear makeup and feel good about themselves without offending anyone,” she says.
Michael McLaughlin, president of Quadrant Cosmetics Corp., a Toronto distributor of perfumes including Giorgio Beverly Hills and Liz Claiborne, says he fears other places will start emulating Halifax. “If you stop wearing it,” he says, “we stop selling it.”
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