1. The fragrances from personal care products contribute to a person's individuality, self-esteem, and sense of well-being. Scent-free programs threaten these aspects of personal identity.
2. I've heard that it is fine to wear scents, as long as they remain within my 'scent-circle' (i.e. I use only enough fragrance that can be smelled by others within an arm's length of me).
3. People with chemical sensitivities confuse dislike with disease.
4. Multiple Chemical Sensitivity only seems to affect white, middle-aged women from North America. Therefore, its validity as an illness is suspect.
5. Health Canada knows of, tests, and approves, the entire contents of fragranced personal care products. Therefore, it's perfectly safe to wear them.

1) The fragrances from personal care products contribute to a person's individuality, self-esteem, and sense of well-being. Scent-free programs threaten these aspects of personal identity.
While the fragrances from personal care products can be pleasing to some, they also can be unpleasant and even harmful to others. Few would disagree that little pleasure or satisfaction can be derived from learning that these fragrances are causing harm to other people, especially when it is harm that could have been avoided.

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2) I've heard that it is fine to wear scents, as long as they remain within my 'scent-circle' (i.e. I use only enough fragrance that can be smelled by others within an arm's length of me).
The 'scent-circle' is an idea which sounds good but which does not work very well in the real world. Have you ever stepped into an empty elevator, a hallway or room and been able to tell that the person before you had been wearing perfume or cologne?

As molecules of fragrance chemicals evaporate from your skin, they do not stay within an arm's distance of you. They are picked up by the currents of air that constantly move around us, and the fragrances dispersed into the atmosphere we all breathe. Fragrances are volatile organic compounds and it's their nature to waft in the air. Even if you sat very still in one place, you could not keep a circle of air containing the fragrance close around you.

Even if this myth were true, many public environments — the classroom, the workplace, the theatre, the gym — do not allow for people to be at an arm's length from each other.

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3) People with chemical sensitivities confuse dislike with disease.
If this were true, there would not be so many people with chemical sensitivities who report that they are most acutely sensitized to their favourite chemical fragrances—the ones they themselves wore for many years. This claim also fails to explain the reactions of people who have lost their sense of smell due to disease or trauma, but continue to have reactions to the chemicals that they can no longer smell. The Nova Scotia Advisory Committee on Environmental Health and other expert groups who have researched the area have concluded that MCS is an illness not a dislike or even a discomfort, just like allergies, asthma and migraines.

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4) Multiple Chemical Sensitivity only seems to affect white, middle-aged women from North America. Therefore, its validity as an illness is suspect.
MCS does seem to strike women more often than men. Migraine headaches are also more common in women than in men. But few people would suggest that migraine headaches are anything less than a serious condition. Two recent studies have shown that, although women report being chemically sensitive twice as often as men, those reporting chemical sensitivities are otherwise evenly distributed with respect to age, education, income and geographic areas. Chemical sensitivities are also evenly reported among ethnic and racial groups.

MCS is not limited to North America. Germany has formally added Multiple Chemical Sensitivity to its system of classifying diseases that will allow much improved tracking of the incidence of MCS in that country. Also, on the website of the South African Federal Council on Disability, you'll find information and suggestions on how to accommodate individuals with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and Environmental Illness.

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5) Health Canada knows of, tests, and approves, the entire contents of fragranced personal care products. Therefore, it's perfectly safe to wear them.
Although Health Canada allows these products for use, this in no way provides a guarantee that some people won't have reactions to them. If scented products are making people with allergies and chemical sensitivities sick, then clearly they are unsafe for some and it makes good sense to take reasonable steps to avoid this harm.

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