Fragrances

When I was a kid if a woman wanted to be fragrant she’d wear perfume, cologne, or “toilet water” (That was a translation of the French term, eau de toilette) and men might use aftershave. If there was a bad odor in a house people would use Air Wick to overpower it.

But now fragrances are everywhere. 

Lots of public buildings are loaded with fragrances, supposedly to make them attractive to customers, but they have the opposite effect on people with allergies and sensitivities.

Most cleaning products, laundry detergents, cosmetics, personal care items, and many other things now contain fragrances. Odor eliminators simply make people unable to smell them, but the actual odors are still in the air.

Years ago I read about a study that said about 18% of people have some sensitivity to fragrances. More recently I read one saying more than 30% of the population have adverse effects from fragrances.

I’m certainly one of those.

Since unscented products are now available, there are obviously a lot of other people like me. I wish everyone would use unscented products.