Allergic US employee sues to ban perfume at work

Yahoo ^ | July 5, 2007

[COUNTrecount]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - An office worker for the US city of Detroit is suing for her colleagues to be banned from wearing perfume which gives her such severe headaches, nausea and coughing fits that she must leave work.

Court documents showed Thursday that Susan McBride suffered so acutely from allergy to the chemicals in scents, lotions and sprays that she had to go home sick when a heavily perfumed co-worker shared her office at the city's historic districts department.

Her sensitivity is such that she avoids the detergent sections in shops and cannot sit near perfumed people in a movie theater or on the bus.

The co-worker refused to leave off the perfume, according to the complaint filed at the district court in Detroit, in the northern state of Michigan. McBride needed medical treatment and was off work for some time.

Now she is seeking a jury trial to make the city force fellow employees to come to work un-scented, citing disability discrimination laws. She is claiming unspecified damages for "pain, suffering, humiliation and outrage" suffered.

McBride and her manager have already asked the city authorities that employ her to enforce a "no scent policy as an accommodation to her disability, without success," the complaint said.

[tpanther]

I don’t know...remember the man ordered to stop smoking in HIS own home because his neighbor, 50-100 yards away, was allergic to cigarette smoke? Rush Limbaugh was talking about this sometime back. That seems a bit much to me!

I’ll bet had the woman seriously talked with her co-workers instead of going the lawsuit route, this wouldn’t have escalated.

Perhaps buy the co-worker a cheap bottle of non-allergenic avon toilet water and invite her to lunch or something?

Anyone can be offended by anything these days. What if the color green gives her a headache...should all her co-workers no longer wear green? What happens on St. Patty’s day....do all those of Irish heritage counter-sue cause they’ve been deprived of wearing green and got pinched on the bus-ride home, ALL because this woman got headaches when she saw green??????

There’s simply no end in sight to this PC world we’ve created!

[wardaddy]

same ol shite as smoke nazis

[swarthyguy]

Bars with no ashtrays, women without perfume, men cologne.

This aroma thingie will be taken up by the peta crowd when coworkers are disturbed by the smell of your hot pastrami. “You eat that?”

[wardaddy]

that is true....it’s Orwellian...control any and everything through first litigation and then legislation

[Revel]

Amen. This is very real. If you are allergic to strong colognes and such then it then it makes you feel sicker than an old dog. You can’t think. Your throat gets scratchy and sore. Your eyes water, and you enter a daze.
It is wrong for someone to wear so much of this stuff that you can smell in in the air for 15 minutes after they leave. I have threatened to get some genuine Skunk musk and wear it around these people. See how they like it. Those that are defending the right for people to expose others to this stuff in such a strong fashion would suddenly be all ticked off If someone was waking around them after being sprayed by a skunk. But what the hey. If it smells good to me then who cares what they think. They are just cry babies. See how that works.

[Revel]

Those are not the people that cause the most problems. The ones that really cause the greatest problems are the ones that douse them selfs with half a bottle of cologne before they go anywhere. I say that they must be pretty insecure people.

[eXe]

“If she don’t like her job, LET HER GET A NEW ONE! Why should however many people or the company change in order to accommodate her??? “

Yup and I agree as well.. this has gotten out of control.

I’m allergic to dogs and horses, what will they do.. ban all dog owners from working where I work? No I think not..

Yeah I start sneezing around someone who has a shirt on covered with Dog hair, but I have the common sense to stay AWAY from it.

When I was a child I had TONS of allergies.. I made it my business to stay away from where they might be set off.

Thankfully now most of my allergies have faded away.. I even have cats now.. but dogs and horses still kill me.. ya don’t see me calling for a ban. :)

[Revel]

Excuse me for saying this. But I Sincerely hope that you develop and real allergy to strong cologne. It is the only way that your cold heart could wake up.

[utahagen]

I agree such people are insecure, or just have bad taste, but I think it’s almost impossible to police these folks without bothering more normal people who, say, just use a little talcum powder after their morning shower.

[Revel]

the first thing that an allergy specialist will tell you is to stay away from what you are allergic to. Being exposed to such things makes your allergy worse.

[Eric Blair 2084]

I dunno. Shouldn’t we wait till one of these crackpots actually win one of these lawsuits first?

[ViLaLuz]

Maybe she will get farts banned from the workplace, too.

[tioga]

This ain’t like second-hand smoking, where people just get mad because they don’t like the smell, and it’s popular to gripe about it. This is a genuine allergic reaction

I get severe allergic reactions to cigarette smoke. Always have. Headaches, stuffiness increases.....I get nauseous and take to my bed. I hate it. Takes hours for me to get over it, sometimes a couple of days.

[Eric Blair 2084]

HeadOn...apply directly to the forehead...HeadOn.

I hate your commercials but I love your product.

[Madame Dufarge]

If I could make my allergies go away it would be the happiest day of my life.

You're not the only one.

My mother had a host of things she was allergic to, and she never once entertained the thought that other people should accommodate to her.

I've been in the workforce for over 40 years, and have never encountered these people who douse themselves in perfume.

[Fintan]

I can relate to this.

I'm thinking of suing my employer for making me get out of bed in the morning, take a shower, get dressed, put up with traffic, get to work on time, actually do something for the money they pay me, work with other people who sometimes smell differently than me, then go home and stress out about all this.

I'm hoping for a gazzillion dollars so I can get a bungalow in St. Maarten's, with a 21-year old blond Swedish maid who will mix my Margaritas, sunbathe nude with me, and rock my world every night.

[Wil H]

Poor baby perhaps she should go see an allergy specialist.

If she has a physical allergy to her co-worker's scent that isn't going to cure it, is it?

All seeing an allergist may do, is (apart from costing her several hundred dollars and a lot more discomfort) is possibly identify the chemicals she is allergic to.Most of which have many pseudonyms, so the list gets pretty long, pretty quickly, for example here is just one chemical that is tested for in cosmetic related skin allergy tests:

Methylchloroisothiazolinone/ Methylisothiazolinone (MCI/MI) Also known as: • 2-Methyl-4-isothiazolin-3-one • 5-Chloro Methyl-4-isothiazolin-3-one • Acticide • Algricide • Algricid CHSO • Amerstat 250 • Cl+Me-isothiazolinone • Euxyl K-100 • Grotan K • Kathron 886 MW • Kathron CG • Kathron DP • Kathron LX • Kathron UT • Kathron WT • Kathron GT • Metat GT • Metatin GT • Paretol • Parmetol

She then would have to find out if any of those chemicals are present in he co-worker's perfume which requires extensive interogation of the manufacturer.

Then what?

[tsomer]

So what about looks? Maybe I would find you so repulsive looking that I would become ill.

Fortunately for all, my looks are often described as 'stunning,' 'dashing,' occasionally 'inspiring,' and once, 'angelic.' I've turned down numerous offers to model, one from Playgirl and another from Blueboy.
Mind you, I take no credit for any of this. But, rest assured you'd have no problem working around me, at least in that regard.

Should you be forced to wear a large bag covering you from head to foot?

Well, if I needed one, I'd see a plastic surgeon first. I would expect, given the severity, that my health insurance would foot the entire bill. If not, I might strike a deal with my co-workers, proposing: "If you all chip in to pay for my nose and face job, you won't have to look at my ugly mug anymore. "

After all, personal rights stop at my eye sight distance.

Well, let's get serious:
1.Sight is virtually infinite in extent, smell, or allergic responses require proximity.
2. I would deserve no blame for being 'butt ugly,' for the same reason that I deserve no credit for being so gorgeous.
3. In the case of the pigs slathered with obnoxious 'eau de goldenrod,' or whatever, the case is with someone who putting something on to disguise or cover or augment what nature gave them, and a reasonable request not to. Demanding I wear a bag because of another's objection to what nature endowed, is a form of restraint, the sort of thing they do in Iran.
4. The woman has a medical condition that does not improve with exposure; once sensitized to an allergen, the body does not desensitize. Allergies are curious, but believe me, they are real. Now, on the other hand, you can grow accustomed to ugly things and people. You can even come to love them. Take my dog, for example...

These cases are not even remotely analogous.

[Shots]

Then what? surely you jest with asking something like that. The health problem is hers not that of her co workers. It is no different then a kid who is allergic to peanuts one mother wanted the school to ban all kids from having peanuts and we know that is not right. The same applies here. She has a health problem it is hers and hers alone why should others have to stop using products because SHE is allergic to them?

[Scotsman will be Free]

As Rush likes to say I have used an absurd example to expose an absurdity. Where does one draw the line? Should an entire facility have to change for one person? I don’t think so. One person’s reasonable accomodation is another’s oppression.
I don’t like stinky people of any odor, but this type situation is, once again, allowing one person to dictate their needs/desires/wants to everyone else. That’s what I have a problem with.
I appreciate your humor.