Student rushed to ER from exposure to Axe Body Spray; School reacts with ban

High school student Brandon Silk  has been treated by his doctors for allergies to Axe Body Spray for a few years. Recent exposure to the fragrance in the hallways of his high school caused him to be rushed to the hospital when his throat swelled causing him to have difficulty breathing. His throat swelled twice before when exposed to the same smell at school. Now his mother is scared to let him go back to school and wants Unilever to disclose the ingredients of the body spray to help determine what is causing his allergic reaction.

Brandon and his mother talked to local TV station WFMZ. Please watch their story and read the article by WFMZ for details….

http://www.wfmz.com/news/news-regional-lehighvalley/Mother-hopes-to-find-a-cure-for-son-s-allergic-reaction-to-AXE-deodorant-body-spray/-/132502/19404082/-/crdsgw/-/index.html

The Bethlehem Pennsylvania school where Brandon attends has put out a statement to parents on their website urging students not to wear Axe body spray due to Brandon’s allergy.  This is a great gesture by the school. I wonder how it will be enforced and for how long?

I am also scent sensitive and am touched by the reactions of many of the students at that school. Some suggest lobbying Unilever to disclose the ingredients for Brandon by posting to Axe’s Facebook page. Check out a video of reactions of students created by a local newspaper. I love their comments.

Smell Inc supports Brandon’s mom, Rosa Silk, and her quest to get the ingredients disclosed by Unilever. Unfortunately it’s an uphill battle. There is no legislation requiring these cosmetic companies to release the ingredients of the fragrance. The Environmental Working Group has proposed the safe cosmetics act to try to get this changed in the cosmetic industry.

Rosa isn’t the first mom to take on Unilever regarding severe allergies to Axe.  Read about the 2010 lawsuit filled in Indiana from an earlier post here at Smell Inc.

Something must be done. Body Spray, fragrances, perfumes, colognes…. it’s getting more and more obnoxious and it’s affecting others. When did it become trendy to reek? And when will these fragrances be considered second-hand scents and treated with the same regard as cigarette smoke. It’s affecting people the same way.

Perfume Obsession: What will they think of next?

For someone who gets ill from fragrances, I’m keenly aware of how scents are everywhere. Our perfume obsessed society can’t get enough. Most people wear fragrances in their shampoo & lotion & deodorant & laundry detergent & then add some perfume of choice. In the spirit of excess, here are new unconventional ways to get even smellier.

DIGESTIBLE PERFUME– Yep, you eat garlic and it seeps through your pores later giving you that lingering smell. Well, there is a company called Beneo that is working on this concept for perfumes. It’s perfumed candy is Deo and it creates the smell of roses once it is digested. It is made from beets.  Rose smells from beets might not be too bad but I can just imagine how this could evolve.

http://www.beneo-group.com/A-Sweet-Scent-sation

It sounds like this trend started in Japan. Fuwarinka in Japan has PERFUME GUM that when chewed exerts its fragrance of peaches or roses through the skin. In 2002 another Japanese company called Tsuge Pipe Company created an EDIBLE PERFUME for cigarettes. A smoker could add the drops of mint, peach, strawberry or orange to their cigarette to change the smell.

Beneo doesn’t seem to be the only ones developing the sweating fragrance method for the western world…. Lucy McRae with biologist Sheref Mansy is creating “Swallowable Perfume”.  They have a slick video ad that shows a woman popping a capsule and sweating out metallic beads that supposedly give off a unique odor. They are still in the developmental phase. While the photography is done well… I think the ad is a little creepy. See it for yourself.

http://youtu.be/X9cVAZrY_9E

http://www.lucymcrae.net/swallowable-parfum/

If you’d rather wear your perfume than sweat it perhaps Lisa Hoffman’s new FRAGRANCED JEWELRY is for you. She has created wooden bead bracelets that when exposed to air release a perfume. Each bracelet comes with a  container with extra beads so the jewelry can always transmit odor. She has five scents to choose from…. Japanese Agarwood, Tuscan Fig, French Clary Sage, Madagascar Orchid and Tunisian Neroli. These are being sold at the Home Shopping Network.

http://www.hsn.com/beauty/lisa-hoffman-perfume-jewelry-tunisian-neroli-beaded-stretch-bracelet-with-refill_p-6642912_xp.aspx

If jewelry is too subtle, you could wear PERFUMED GLOVES instead. L’Artisan Parfumeur offers gloves that will give off a floral scent for three years! According to InStyle Magazine these gloves will go on sale ($480) starting October 30 through L’artisan Perfumeur’s website.

Really? What will they think of next?

The perfume obsession continues.

Ambient Scenting Revealed: Businesses Pump Fragrances to Encourage you to Spend $$$

I recently bought a purse from a large name department store. The bag is banished to the guest bedroom because it reeks. It will air out there for a month or so. This purse has been soaking in the scents of its store for a while. Many stores are scenting their air with fragrances.

This can be done by large units in air conditioning systems or small motion controlled units hiding under a shelf on a promotional display. There are a lot of companies out there delivering a myriad of devices and smells to businesses, this marketing technique is called ambient scenting and it’s taking off.

These fragrance pumping devices are found in stores, hotels, casinos, cruise ships and even public buildings. They may be trying to mask an unpleasant odor or they may be trying to seduce you into spending more of your money. They may also be making you sick, but more on that later.

Shopping Malls: ripe with ambient scenting

The concept is to use smells to create brand recognition. A signature scent that may evoke certain emotions or memories. My friend Kelly says that Cover Girl powder has a unique scent to it and when she smells it she instantly recalls Cover Girl and the positive feelings she has towards their makeup. Companies are taking scent branding beyond their products and are using it in their stores and promotional displays.

Most people know that the popular teen clothing store, Abercrombie & Fitch keeps their stores smelling of their cologne, Abercrombie’s Fierce. If you walk into one of these stores you will be greeted by their signature scent.

Scent Air, an ambient scenting company, boasts on their website about some of their customers.

• Sony Style Stores – a signature fragrance of  “citrus, vanilla and other secret ingredients”
• Westin Hotels & Resorts – entrances use a white tea fragrance
• Four Points by Sheraton Hotels – lobby and common areas smells of “Pinwheels in the Breeze”, a Yankee Candle designed signature scent
• Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino – Uses a HVAC system to pump “Coconut Spice” through 135,000 square feet
• Bloomingdale’s–  Baby Department smells like baby powder, coconut in the swimsuit section, and Lilac fragrance in Lingerie. Seasonal scents like chocolate, pine and sugar cookies waft there as well.
• Hard Rock Hotel Universal Orlando – Smell of “Ocean” in the lobby and “sugar cookie” and “waffle cone” near the ice cream shop.
• Celebration Health MRI facility – smells of “ocean” and “coconut” to relax patients receiving MRI’s.

Scent air offers many ways to distribute fragrances from devices that can be hooked up to large building air conditioning systems with intensity controls to point of purchase sprayers that can be mounted on a shelf display and be triggered by motion sensors. Scent air is so high-tech they custom make units large enough for theme parks and the military to use in simulation training. They even created scent distribution devices for street billboards. Scent air is just one of many companies offering ambient scenting devices.

Another company named Prolitec created scents for a large retailer in Europe comparable to Wal-Mart. They created a “Wine Cellar” scent for the wine section and “Nature After Rain” for the checkout line. For hotels, Prolitec claims it turned a pool’s chlorine smell into fresh flowers and masked bad tobacco and moldy odor. Prolitec also supplies a major casino in the Southeast with ambient scenting to hide tobacco smells there. Prolitec suggests its products to cruise ships, malls, fitness centers, schools, health care facilities, theatres, and airports. Here are some of Prolitec’s clients they have listed on their website…

• Bebe
• Abercrombie & Fitch
• Hollister
• Samsung
• Diane Von Furstenberg
• Hilton
• InterContinental
• Sofitel
• The Breakers
• Palm Beach
• MGM Grand Hotel & Casino
• Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
• Bellagio
• Harrah’s
• Bliss Spa
• GE Healthcare
• Lifeline Fitness
• Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh
• Henry County Health Center

Event planners may contact another scenting company called Scentevents for their parties. They have quite a list of events on their website which they provided this service.  It ranges from weddings to movie premieres to theme parks to museums. They carry a wide range of scents including crayons, rotten fish, fresh-cut grass and bubble gum.

Ambient scenting may just be an interesting marketing technique to most people but it can make some sick. Many people suffer from allergies, asthma, migraine headaches and multiple chemical sensitivities. All of these can be triggered or made worse by fragrances. When someone walks into an establishment there is no way of knowing whether fragrances are being pumped through the air.

I get headaches triggered by fragrances. Trips to certain businesses mean I will be popping Excedrin before the afternoon is over. I thought it was probably the fragrances of the other people in the store but now I suspect it has to do with the fragrances these stores are using. I am now a lot more savvy to this and avoid those stores. I wonder if these businesses even give consideration to people like me. Do they think about the customers they might be losing because their marketing technique makes them ill?

I’m not saying all scents are evil. I enjoy the vanilla wafting through the air from Ben N Jerry ice cream shops. That fragrance does not give me headaches, maybe it’s just natural vanilla?

If you are like me and suspect an establishment is using a fragrance that is making you sick, please speak up. Tell the manager. Write the corporation. That business would most likely want to know and if enough people complain perhaps it will create change.

And for those businesses using Ambient Scenting, it would be nice if you disclosed it somehow. A sticker in your storefront window perhaps or a disclaimer on your website. I would love to know before I plan a cruise or book a night at a hotel whether or not they use this kind of scenting. I know this will likely never happen but it really should.

Ambient Scenting is widespread, don’t take my word for it…. here are some links to check out and as always your comments are welcome.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_26/b4184085987358.htm

http://www.prolitec.com/ambient_scenting.htm

http://www.scentair.com/power-of-scent-case-studies/

http://www.scentevents.com/scent-systems-products.html

http://healing.about.com/cs/mcs/a/scentsense.htm

If you want to know more about how fragrances can affect your health, how prevalent scents are in our society, or how to have a fragrance free lifestyle please browse other articles on this blog “Smell Inc. The Perfuming of America”.

What is a migraine and why do fragrances trigger my headaches?

When I often tell people that fragrances can give me migraine headaches, they say something about allergy issues. Most people do not understand that a migraine headache is a neurological disorder and can be triggered by fragrances.

I get migraines because my brain easily gets over stimulated. It’s this stimulation that tells my brain to increase production of certain chemicals. These chemicals can cause other reactions to happen which can result in nausea, throbbing pain, blood vessels dilating and constricting, difficulty concentrating, and a range of other unpleasant side effects.

The best way for me to manage my headaches is to avoid my triggers, keeping the stimulation under control. I think of it on a point system. It takes 100 points to get a headache. Not sleeping 7 hours is worth 25 points, eating poorly is worth 25 points, chocolate is worth 10 points, smelling strong perfume is worth 65 points, drinking 2 cups of coffee is worth 15 points, stress can be worth 35 points and so on. If I combine too many triggers in a day I’m done for. And yes, fragrances would be the trigger I assign the most points to.

With certain perfumes/ fragrances all it can take is a whiff of a passerby and my brain starts to tingle. I know I have to be extremely careful the rest of the day or I need to take Excedrin as a preemptive strike.  I am in complete control of most of my triggers except fragrances. People close to me avoid fragranced products but all the acquaintances I run into in a day, well that’s a different story. I don’t expect everyone to stop wearing fragrances but I would hope people would keep them a little more to themselves. You should not be smelling them unless you are in their personal space. When they walk past you and leave a scent trail, well that’s a bit much.

Why is my nervous system so sensitive? I suspect genetics has something to do with it but I’m not certain.

There are good resources out there that give more details about the chemicals involved in migraines, here are a few….

A short video that contains animation which shows the biological process of a migraine headache happening and explains which chemicals are involved… http://video.healthination.com/usnews/migraines.html

Magnum – Migraines awareness group detailed article about myths and facts of Migraines…  http://www.migraines.org/myth/mythreal.htm

HealthCentral- a website that has lots of good information on migraines…. http://www.healthcentral.com/migraine/understanding-migraine-000097_3-145.html

New Study: Single Women Ditch the Perfume!

I always thought it was wise not to wear perfume because so many people are sensitive to it or may not be attracted to the scent you pick.  However, there is a study out from the psychology department at  Florida State University that suggests going au natural just may be the answer to attracting a mate.

They found that men were attracted to the natural smell of a woman on an unconscious level. When they smelled t-shirts that had been worn by women ovulating their testosterone levels increased, which can be an indication of sexual arousal.

Personally, I can’t stand the smell of colognes and fragranced deodorants on men. I love the natural smell of a clean man. I think it would be interesting to see if a similar effect could be had if the sexes were reversed. Perhaps the researchers at FSU are working on that.

Here’s the link to the original study by Saul L. Miller and Jon K. Maner from FSU…

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/21/2/276.full

And here is an article about the study  published in Discovery News…

http://news.discovery.com/human/women-perfume-natural-scent.html