Posted on 02/12/2012 4:17:55 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Less is more, according to New Hampshire lawmakers debating whether to ban the use of scented or fragrant soaps by state employees.
Under House Bill 1444, state workers who interact with the public would be prohibited from wearing fragrances or scented products while on the job, MyFoxBoston reported.
The reason for the proposed ban -- exposure to scented products can irritate or worsen symptoms for people with asthma or allergies.
"The chemicals in some of these products can trigger the nasal congestion, sneezing and the runny nose," Dr. Stanley Fineman, an allergist with Emory University and the Atlanta Allergy and Asthma Clinic, told MyFoxBoston. "With the asthmatics, there's really good data showing their lung function changes when they're exposed to these compounds."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
If they can do it to their workers, they can do it to all workers...
Nanny State PING!
New Hampshire will stink.
New Hampshire - Live Free Or Die!New Hampshire - Live Scent Free Or Answer To Big Brother!
Control the little things and the big ones will be easy.
..they want to regulate smell? So, is there a law on body odor?
Guess that excludes legislators and governors since they do their own thing without any interaction with the little people.
If you do not have allergies, this probably does sound very silly to you. But, honestly, as someone who suffered for years because of fragrances worn by other women at work, I can tell you I would have welcomed such a ban in my workplace.
“..they want to regulate smell? So, is there a law on body odor?”
This really isn’t about smell, it’s a weird “green” anti-corporate fringe movement, that I first encountered in Canada about a decade ago. Think of - “I’m allergic to wheat, I’m a vegan, I’m dying from second-hand smoke, genetically engineered food is killing me, and I’m cripplingly allergic to any perfumes in the air.”
It’s all a continuum of green madness. It’s a religion of rightous self-loathing.
When applied modestly, perfume enhances a woman’s sex appeal.
The sterilization of our lives is probably why they are asthmatic to begin with.
So, you can’t throw frisbees on the beaches of LA county and you can’t wear deodorant in New Hampshire....
What a wimpy world we live in.....
I need a cigarette...
“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them....” ~Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged~
We who live here really need to ban the Massholes from moving up.
But then there’s always that wench who inappropriately pours it on before going to work. It can be a really obnoxious thing, and I have no allergies.
Like many things, this sort of thing should be dealt with by social pressure. But that is politically incorrect and legally impossible in many cases, so legislation gets resorted to.
Libertarian ping
...I suppose you would have to completely prohibit use. There would be no good way to accurately and consistently measure...
...on another subject, I would like to see legislation on the use of acronyms in the workplace.
These people will be the first to go during the 2012 Apocalypse!
Might be the fastest way to dispense with all of this crap short of bloodshed.
I can’t imagine what the DMV will smell like in July if the air conditioning goes!
Absolutely loving it! First they came for cigarettes in the workplace which was ok. Then they came for cigarettes in government facilities, which was still ok. But then they came for cigarettes in privately owned establishments and it was unconstitutional, but the voters refused to see that this was a terrible overreach of power. I can only hope that the idiots that voted against smoking in all public venues, lose their horrific perfume and understand what they did.
Seriously. If you are allergic to that stuff then it is a living He** to be around it. It causes a lot more problems than a running nose. It is like sniffing Glue. Headaches,Loss of concentration, and general sense of stupor, are some of the symptoms. And If you can’t get away from it then it kills you immune system so that you get colds constantly. I personally went through this at a job. I could follow someones trail through a building just by following the sent. Many of these people dump an entire bottle of cologne on them every day. You people who think this should be a protected right to force people to breath that stuff are ignorant. A little might be OK. But the whole room should not smell for an hour after you leave.
I used to say that I was going to get some skunk scent and put it on for the day. I bet you same people would be complaining up a storm. You would demand that such a fellow employee clean it off or be fired. Hypocrites.
Thing is - some of the scents people wear DO cause severe reactions to those around them and not just a few sneezes. Case in point. A woman wearing a heavy perfume walked past my mother in a grocery store. My mother fainted immediately. Thankfully, a man right behind her caught her before she hit the floor. Later we found out that people with heart conditions - like my mother - can be very sensitive to certain chemicals used in perfumes. Interestingly, after my mother underwent by-pass surgery, the sensitivity to perfumes went away.
I honestly think I would make working at a job like this a living hell.
Smuggle in perfume, spray it in random places, drop some on the floor, wipe it under tables in the cafeterias..
I doubt I would stay employed long in any of these new police state jobs that try to run your life both on and off the job.
Be careful what you wish for, some people splash on the scents because they don’t like to bathe.
I went scent free maybe 30 years ago. After a while, my sensitivity to perfumes, colognes, and scented soaps, increased dramatically. Frankly, I think my normal sense of smell returned.
I can’t stand to be around people who douse themselves with scents, these days.
I’d think this article was a joke, but not now a days. Only government bureaucrats can take a rather simple problem and complicate it into laws and regulations requiring specifications, extensive rules, inspectors and unnecessary expense. I just wonder if anyone with more sense than a dust mop ever thought to check to see if this problem was 1 in 2 encounters or 1 in 50,000 and if a little leadership could solve the problem?
both reps who sponsored this bill are republicans.
wtf are they thinking? several bills have been filed in this vein. they are looking to lose their super majority in the house.
bill details:
http://www.nhliberty.org/bills/view/2012/HB1444
Oops, leadership and common sense are probably not listed in the bureaucrat’s job description.
I agree. People can do whatever they want on their own property and slather themselves with anything they can tolerate, but once out in public place we're obliged to show some sense of decorum. Smelling like a tear-gas factory, a rabbit cage or turd is nobody's right as long as they have the power to control themselves.
I got to thinking though-- I wonder if someone with such a heart condition or severe allergies could sue the maker of the offending product?
‘When applied modestly, perfume enhances a woman’s sex appeal.’
I think most of this “allergy’ stuff with respect to perfume is a result of the cheap knock-off garbage so availible today. Even a few drops of some of these chemical bombs can send people not otherwise allergic into runny nosed red eyed sneezin hell. The expensive stuff, even when liberally applied will just be strong, not virulent.
Like Newt said, first thing is to defund them all. He didn't really want to defund the EPA, he proposed remaking it....and giving it a different name....
It’s odd that folks call them themselves Conservatives on FR, but jump on the ‘ban’ bandwagon the second a law comes up that address their pet peeve. Leave it to a peeve and get over yourselves. Decreasing freedom is not essentially Conservative.
There are enough bans that need repeal.
When NH republicans lose their majorities in the state house and senate, there will be the usual bitching by Conservatives on this board. And they will lose their majorities due to multple bills filed like this. If you suppor this, don’t whine when it loses and Republicans lose here.
Seriously, if it’s that bad, how do you go out in public? There are all kinds of smells out there, and it’s just a part of life. Like with the peanut allergies, how could such a person go to a mall since every mall I’ve ever been in has a Chinese restaurant cooking kung pao chicken?
Right. And the way I see it. If I can smell it from a foot away then that may be my problem. But if I can smell it from 10 feet away or even 100 feet away...Then that is their problem. Anyone who puts that much on has mental problems anyways. They are insecure. They are trying to attract others by means of a forced chemical reaction. It is almost like some form of witchcraft.
You notice that many here think it is just a matter of others being offended by a smell. What they don’t get is that it makes others very sick. It is kind of like spreading peanut butter around people with a peanut allergy. But they just don’t get it.
Thats why I have been saying for years.. if its really that bad, how do these people live? I suspect this is just a convenient way to control others and their behavior, and I don’t even wear any scents.
Honestly its time to start calling out some of the more obvious fakers. I know some people have a legit allergy, but I also know there are a lot of fakers out there.
My mother is very sensitive to that sort of stuff, but she’s retired. However, I have not heard her advocating for a ban on scents in my town.
My gym, however, has asked its members not to wear heavy scents. That would pertain mostly to women, I suppose.
On the other hand, why in the world does it have to be a law? Why can’t the governor issue an executive order for state government workplaces?
Maybe it’s because if they can do a law for state workers, they think they can eventually do it for local government workers and the private sector, instead of letting them determine their own policies. Camels nose in the tent, and all that.
“I can’t imagine what the DMV will smell like in July if the air conditioning goes!”
While living in Moscow 20 some odd years ago, and maybe still today, they would shut off their centralized hot water for a month or two in rotating areas of the city to work on the system.
Adding to no hot water the scarcity of perfume, deoderant and soap and you have the most unimagineable smell I equate with Communism. You would get it in full doses in subways and on buses.
The building I worked at doesn't enforce it. I wound up in the hospital for an overnight stay, stress tests the next day, etc., due to someone’s fragrances. My boss understood and did what she could, then finally suggested I consider telecommuting. That has been such a blessing for me, you can't even know.
I don't really want laws to ban fragrances but whatever chemicals these companies are putting in them needs to be exposed. I can handle true perfumes, flowers, and such. Even all the oily odors from an auto shop or junk yard is completely bearable. But the cocktails these fragrances are are practically poison.
I got news for you, I tend to stay away from a lot of functions and areas due to fragrances.
One day, I slipped up and went to a wedding shower for my sister’s future daughter-in-law. Neither one of us thought ahead. The door opened, and I got nailed before I even walked in the door. Within minutes, my throat was tightening up and I had to leave. My brother, who was working out with me swimming, saw first-hand what it did to me and my ability to take air in. It took some time for it all to get out of my system.
Your question about going out in public: I tend to go when I know there won’t be many people around. I shop late at night or early in the morning, although holding my breath and grabbing fragrance-free laundry soap in the middle of aisle is a challenge. The occasional movie is at times when only a handful of people are in the theater. Such like that.
It’s a pain but I simply deal with it the best I can.
You’re right. It has nothing to do with the smell and everything to do with the chemicals used to make those fragrances.
It’s incredible,isn’t it?
I doubt that we could list all of the laws that have taken away personal choice since you and I were girls.
And then,of course,the safety rules for babies and children. It boggles the mind. The removal of the high diving board at our local swimming pool was the last straw. The pool was 12’ deep and jumping off the board was a rite of passage for my kids and their friends. No one ever was hurt. Now——gone. {Of course that ended the diving lessons)
I’m glad I was born when I was—we had the best of it.
Perfume is not that big a problem, you can always move away but the air freshener that they use in some places is enough to knock a buzzard off a gut wagon.
I’m not green. I don’t eat organic. I’ve got some possible gluten allergies but I’m ignoring it. Second hand smoke is gross but doesn’t bug me.
Artificial fragrances can cause my throat to close up. At the very least they give me a headache. I’ve had them send me into an altered state where I couldn’t drive or judge distances. Don’t believe me if you like but it’s not imaginary. I know the exact moment my throat first closed up in reaction to perfume. That was freaky.
I’m not asking people to ban it. I’ve removed fragrances from my life and my friends know not to wear perfume or heavy deodorants to my home. But it’s a real thing and it’s important that people know that it’s not just an imaginary self-loathing. I wouldn’t use stupid, ineffectual, expensive organic shampoo every morning by choice, I assure you!
It’s so rare to hear from other people with fragrance allergies. Have you ever had a headache or something from perfume that left you in an altered state? I only had that twice but it’s freaked me out because I felt drunk, or dizzy, not able to judge distances.
You sound worse than me though I’m blessed to work from home and go out pretty infrequently. I worry though that I’m setting my daughter up to be sensitive to scents because I don’t have any in the house; my husband now gets headaches from fragrances because we’ve been fragrance free for our whole marriage.
Like I said to Big Redd, why couldn’t the edict be an executive order, since it involves state government workplaces?
Maybe it’s because the lawmakers introducing the bills eventually want to ban scents in all workplaces statewide.
I am sorry you all are so sensitive to perfumes, et al., but why should YOU get to ban what people wear in MY workplace?
Wanna bet that the crap that makes you ill comes from China?
And if that isn't bad enough, you know what happens when you get "Secret" in your mouth? It's like on Tom and Jerry where the cat gets a mouthful of Alum and his mouth shrinks too small to eat the mouse. I would barely be able to talk, she had a Southern giggle, and I was the one always saying "Ith thnot funny!" LOL
Garlic cloves would be better.
And bacon.
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