Scents: Scotland Bars Body Odours

Malodour on the dancefloor

September 4, 2006

NIGHTSPOTS are being forced to pump out perfume because the new smoking ban is failing to disguise body odours.

Air fresheners and scented oils are being deployed in a bid to banish smells caused by sweaty revellers. Licensed trade chiefs say venues are turning some people away because of poor hygiene, which was covered up before by the smell of cigarette smoke.

Kay Bennett, of Edinburgh city centre nightclub Cabaret Voltaire, said: “If you walk into a club with a few hundred people dancing, you notice a smell. It’s a combination of BO, bodily functions, alcohol and sweat.”

Michael McHugh, of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, said: “Often you see a gap at the bar because people move away from someone who smells.”

Connie Pitts
September 12, 2006

Health Hazards of synthetic fragranced products

Information
Let’s help spread the truth. Please forward to everyone in your address book, as people have a RIGHT TO KNOW THE TRUTH. Knowledge of the government’s best kept secret is slowy killing people, even the unborn. It’s time we demanded SAFER products, for the sake of our children, whose brains are still developing.
We are ALL at risk. This is not a joke, it is the truth. This is NOT an Urban Legend, although when the government discovers it, they will try to place it in that category, just as they did when a reported dog died from Swiffer Wet Jet cleaner, which contained a chemical that is in anti-freeze.
Let’s send this around the globe versus *junk* email for a change. You can make a difference. We all can. This is more important than many emails that make the globe time and time again, which offer good luck and many other bogus claims. Let’s seriously make a difference. Your life may depend on it.
If you are concerned about the rising rates of asthma, breast cancers, leukemia, neurological diseases, and much more, then please email to everyone you know.

Fragrances are now used in almost every cleaning, laundry, and personal-care product on the market. Since people have been using perfumes for hundreds of years, it’s reasonable to wonder why the problem of using scents has surfaced only recently. Until the 20th century, perfumes were made from natural ingredients derived directly from plants and animals.
As fragrances became cheaper and more widespread, they also became more synthetic. The National Academy of Sciences reports that 95% of the chemicals used in fragrances today are synthetic compounds derived from petroleum, including known toxins capable of causing cancer, birth defects, central nervous system disorders and allergic reactions.
We have been brainwashed by the industry to feel we must cover up our natural scents with toxic chemicals. Many of the same chemicals in perfumes are the same chemicals that are in cigarette smoke. You would think the government would protect people by attempting to regulate the industries that are causing harm; however, the cosmetic industry is self regulated and isn’t required to give formulations, test results, safety data or consumer complaints to the FDA. When you use perfume or cologne, remember you are using powerful chemicals regulated solely by the industry that sells them.
Just because they don’t affect you now doesn’t mean they won’t affect someone in line next to you (giving them a migraine or asthma attack), or that you will always be immune to their effects. These chemicals go directly into the blood stream when applied to our skin, and are also absorbed into the skin from our clothing. We also inhale these chemical fumes that go straight to our brains where they can cause major harm, and many perfume chemicals have a narcotic effect. There is research that links the use of perfumes to many diseases, including breast cancer.
Informative websites include;
www.fpinva.org
www.ehnca.org (view chemical analysis of a popular perfume and info regarding a petition most people are not aware of, due to lack of media attention.
www.nottoopretty.org
www.ourlittleplace.com (see what is really in your falsely advertised fabric softeners and dryer sheets.)

Read more from Connie Pitts

Get a Whiff of This: Perfumes the Invisible Chemical Poisons By Connie Pitts

Many of you will discover that the following is taken from the website of Health Care Without Harm. That document has served many well.

I keyed in the Fragrances in Health Care from a copy I have of the flyer prepared for Clean Med 2006. Then I recognized the work as being from Health Care Without Harm, for Betty Bridges and I had at one point served with a committee of people working with HCWH. The document is also available through HCWH, where it is titled, “Fragrances.” See http://www.noharm.org/us/pesticidesCleaners/Fragrances

Whichever format you choose to use, do take it to your doctors, your healthcare facilities. They need to learn this and they need to learn it soon. In the case of perfume poisoning, it is better to prevent and sooner is definitely better than later.

We just had a mainstream media TV news item in our area about kids’ earaches and how it’s better not to administer antibiotics as most often the pain is not caused by a bacteria. Parents, of course, clamor for drugs, without regard to further consequences. The report mentioned viral cause . . . What they fail to mention is that earaches can be caused by petrochemical-derived fragrances. Think EARS, NOSE and THROAT when you or your children are forced to inhale someone’s toxins, which are marketed under the benign-sounding word: FRAGRANCE. Of course, I’d be truly surprised if mainstream media ever voiced a caution about use of petrochemical-derived fragrances . . . but maybe I’ll live to see that day.

And for information, look outside the US. The UK has published information about air “fresheners” causing earaches and diarrhea. For example, see Hot topic – Smelling sweeter may not be healthier
We who are already chemically injured know fragrances are capable of causing a lot more difficulties for people of all ages, races and genders. Fragrances know no boundaries . . . for goodness sakes, they are volatile and the added phthalates make the petrochemical-derived scents last longer. Once breathed in or absorbed, they become part of your body . . . and the body of your developing embryo or fetus as well. Fragrances are a heady brew to be unleashing upon an unsuspecting public.

Remember: We ALL are stakeholders when it comes to breathing.

— barb wilkie

CleanMed2006
Seattle, WA * 18 – 20 April, 2006

Fragrances in Health Care

To many people, the word “fragrance” means something that smells nice, such as perfume. We don’t often stop to think that manufactured scents are chemicals. Fragrance chemicals are organic compounds that volatilize, or vaporize into the air – that’s why we can smell them. They are added to products to give them an aroma or to mask the odor of other ingredients. The volatile organic chemicals [sic] (VOCs) emitted by fragrance products can contribute to poor indoor air quality (IAQ) and are associated with a variety of adverse health effects.

Exposure to fragrance chemicals can cause headaches; eye, nose and throat irritation; nausea; forgetfulness; loss of coordination, and other respiratory and/or neurotoxin symptoms. Many fragrance ingredients are respiratory irritants and sensitizers, which can trigger asthma attacks and aggravate sinus conditions.

Fragrance chemicals are the number one cause of allergic reactions to cosmetics — not only to the primary users, but also to those who breathe in the chemicals as secondhand users. Phthalates in fragrances are known to disrupt hormones and are linked in animal studies to malformations of the penis, as well as adverse effects on developing testes.

In health care facilities, fragrance can come from a number of sources:
scented cleaning products;
fragrance-emitting devices and sprays;
workers, patients, and visitors who are wearing perfume, cologne or aftershave; scented cosmetics, skin lotions or hair products;
or clothes that have been laundered with scented detergents, fabric softeners or dryer sheets.
Indoor air quality can be greatly improved in health care faciliites by adopting a hospital-wide fragrance-free policy that includes a fragrance-free policy for employees, maintenance products and non-employee hospital occupants. For additional information see: http://www.noharm.org or http://.fpinva.org

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And because I have keyed the above in from the CleanMed flyer, I’m adding the site of the Environmental Health Network, whose members, Betty Bridges, RN and Barb Wilkie developed the petition filed May 11, 1999 with the US Food and Drug Administration, assigned docket number 99P-1340. See http://www.ehnca.org and the petition itself, at http://www.ehnca.org/FDApetition/bkgrinfo.htm

FDA Petition 99P-1340 is still open. Write to the FDA at fdadockets@oc.fda.gov> and tell the FDA just how modern, synthetic, petrochemical-derived fragrances adversely affect your health and/or the health of your family members. WRITE about your symptoms. Include docket number 99P-1340 on the subject line, but do not include your personal identifying numbers like social security or health plan numbers.

It is way past time due for the flavors and fragrance industry to come clean, and, along with the FDA, to substantiate its products for safety BEFORE marketing. Just testing for skin reactions doesn’t count as safety . . . not when these chemical combos can pollute the air and bodies of user and non users. Fragrances are not safety tested for adverse respiratory effects — upper and lower. Fragrances contain carcinogens, neurotoxins and teratogens . . . the can cause cancer; adversely affect the nervous systems, central and autonomic; and they can adversely affect developing embryos and fetuses. Besides, fragrance chemicals can store in adipose tissue and they are persistent. Where is that substantiation of safety????

keyed in and comments by
barb wilkie
EHN president emerita
Sept. 13, 2006

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It IS the combinations of chemicals, states UC Professor Tyrone Hayes in Oakland Tribune article about pesticides.

It IS the environment states Breast Cancer Action and Breast Cancer Fund in an Oakland Tribune article about breast cancer.

It IS the combination of fragrance chemicals,as well as individual petrochemically derived chemicals, state Betty Bridges, RN (FPIN) and Barb Wilkie (EHN) since petitioning the FDA May 11, 1999. Write to the FDA . . . tell them to protect your health by regulating the flavors and fragrance industry. Put Docket Number 99P-1340 on your subject line. E-mail FDA Dockets at fdadockets@oc.fda.gov