Lsherm: How could they possibly even enforce this? What about soaps? Laundry detergent? Fabric softener? Do we all have to put up with horrendous BO because asthmatics can't take care of themselves?

Also, who in their right farking mind thinks what you smell like is something the government should have control over?

The government could simply say that employers could have it as part of their dress code policy and not be afraid of getting sued. My employer requires employees to bathe regularly and keep their hair presentable. Easily added to that sort of policy.

No cologne for me, thanks. If I've got any scent on me, it's whatever is still lingering on my face from the morning's shave. And you'll have my shaving soap when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.


/J. Floris N° 89 - $35 a cake, but it'll last you 6 months and it's a bargain at twice the price
// I could stand to buy a new brush, now that I think about it

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this but the worst offenders are the big women in the elevators, but I don't know if the alternative is worse


/also they take the elevator to the second floor and then back down again at the end of the day
//take the stairs fatty

Of course there is always the easy way to tell if someone is wearing too much perfume.

Ricardo Klement: Seriously, if the perfume is condensating on the cold surfaces in the room, you may have used a little much.

"condensating"?

Grables'Daughter: GAT_00: Grables'Daughter: I don't understand how they would distinguish if someone is wearing perfume vs. showered with a scented soap, etc.

Smell quantity.

Sure, but how would you legally measure that?

You would carry around a small, nausea-prone child. If the child barfs at a range of 10 feet or less from the perfumed person, it's too much.

I remember sittting in church next to a lady who had slathered on some kind of cheap Avon crap, and in front of a guy who had apparently showered in Aqua Velva. The carpet in the building had just been replaced, and the glue was still outgassing. The combination of fumes was horrendous. I had to leave.

As someone with mild allergies, I say let coworkers work it out with their bosses.

Seriously. Because if you work with the public, you're going to have that woman walking in a cloud of perfume come in and set you off anyways...

It's difficult to avoid fragrances in things like lotions and soap. Those I use tend to be faintly scented. My mother is sensitive to smells and prone to migraines, which exposure to strong smells can trigger. If she doesn't like the smell of something (like Cornhusker's Lotion), I stop using it. So yeah, I generally avoid perfume, aside from the occasional spritz of a mild body-spray.

Even that never comes close to the almost-visible scent clouds some people seem to wear. Those are just a public health hazard, not just to people with allergies and asthma, but to migraine sufferers, too.

First they came for the peanut products in schools and I did not speak out.

Then they came for the perfumes.

"Waaaah! Somebody is wearing cologne! I don't like -- I mean, I'm ALLERGIC!"

Sure you are, honey. Sure you are.

I don't wear cologne or perfume at work (or elsewhere, usually), but the guy who sits next to me, reeking of stale cigarette smoke, can DIAF. Or I could live with it, because in the grand scheme of things, it's really not that big of a deal. However, I will rip the nastiest farts in his vicinity whenever I can.

Whining, whining everywhere.

No cologne? Then you will get to love the smell of the fragrance of a PHP programmer who has sat in his chair for eight hours straight.

/Not sure if this is a good idea.

Haw Haw. Nothing like preserving the aw-nature-all odors that might emanate. ???

Perhaps they should reconsider.

rynthetyn: Good. I'm tired of going somewhere and then being sick for the next three days because the perfume triggered my asthma.

If you're that delicate, maybe you should just die.

Lsherm: How could they possibly even enforce this? What about soaps? Laundry detergent? Fabric softener? Do we all have to put up with horrendous BO because asthmatics can't take care of themselves?

Also, who in their right farking mind thinks what you smell like is something the government should have control over?

It's pretty simple.

If you can smell it across the office, then it's way too much.

I am not one to coddle crazy people who claim they are "fragrance-sensitive" and all that crap; but honestly, you should not be able to smell someone's perfume/cologne/whatever any farther than arm's length. I sat behind a girl in my Business Associations course last fall, and really, it was beyond awful. She wore very nice-smelling perfume, but she must have bathed in it, and some days my eyes would itch for hours afterward.

Mrs. Drongo takes very bad migraines.

Scents set them off.

We live somewhere where quite regularly in public there are people who think the appropriate amount of body-spray is measurable in inflatable-swimming-pools. (Reading this thread, I suspect that is the case everywhere).

This means that normal day out involves remembering high-strength painkillers and actively avoiding coming within 20 feet of anyone that looks like they could be a contestant on any reality TV show. Fifty foot if they could be on Big Brother.

/ It's supposed to be a subtle suggestion of the scent, ladies. Not a re-enactment of the German Phosphine-trials in World War I.
// Same goes for you, douchebag guys.

Perducci: I'm split on this.

Half of me wants to slap the over-sensitive, whiny busybodies who want to ban everyday things. The vast majority of the time, there's nothing wrong with a bit of fragrance. I've actually been to a local government meeting and had everything come to a standstill because one person in the audience couldn't handle a bit of perfume (and didn't want to sit by the exit to get some fresh air). Eventually, they hunted down someone who had the audacity to shower with a scented body wash or something and made him leave the meeting.

Like most "extreme sensitivities", 1-10% are legit, and 90-99% are psychological. I've had many encounters with the "If anyone is wearing fragrance I'm totally incapacitated" brigade, all the while I'm wearing it myself and very wisely not mentioning it to the person who's doing just fine. Of course, I'm a guy, so I'm not expected to be wearing it (and I wear it with subtlety) and being off their radar they're perfectly fine. For some reason I've never had someone have a reaction to it, funny that.

Good rule of thumb if you are planning to wear it at work - skip the ears/neck and only wear it places where it's under at least one layer of clothing. We had one guy who cleared the room with his and after a couple of weeks he stopped, so I'm guessing the boss gave him a talk.

I started wearing it because I was doing event photography, and even when you showered right before going out to shoot (for the love of god, please do this), when it's 85+F and you're carrying 30 pounds of gear and maneuvering for photos, you're gonna get that salty sweat smell, so a bit of cologne helps keep that in check when you're dealing with people.

I'm curious: 100 years ago did most people with asthma just die?

It seems they're so delicate that just about leaving the house is taking their own lives in their hands, so how did they manage in the past when nobody cared, everybody smoked, and society wasn't in the habit of capitulating to the needs and whims of its weakest members.

CSB time:

I work at a duty free shop, and as such, well, we have perfume. Lots of perfume. For a small store, I'm surprised at the amount of perfume we have in stock (and I'm amazed each time we get a counter-piling new shipment in that surprisingly fits on the tiny number of shelves we have on the showroom floor). And as a guy, well, whoop-de-doo, it's perfume. My Old Spice sticks serve me just fine.

I do not enjoy when customers spray twenty different bottles across the building. I do not enjoy it even more when they spray the cheap $10 bottles of Perry Ellis perfume that sits in front of my register, and even moreso when it's in my general direction. Cheap perfume is just horrible on the nose and eyes from a distance but even worse when it's at point-blank range. It's even more worse when it's cheap perfumes made by a shell company owned by your store's corporation (just as the duty free company also owns a farkton of liquor companies that put out some nasty shiat, too).

/we get price changes every 2-3 weeks and it's a biatch to re-label and mark down hundreds of bottles again and again
//how Paris Hilton is still relevant and has a perfume line is beyond me
///slashies! and csb!

PC LOAD LETTER: EvilEgg: What smells like whale hork?!

I am so stealing this for the next time.

He stole it from Futurama.

A ladle is not an acceptable tool for applying perfume. Neither is an exterminator's spray rig.

If I can smell your perfume without planting my face in your cleavage or crotch, you probably put way too much on. And if I can smell you walking by or from driving behind you on the freeway, you need to be bathed with a fire hose, lye soap and a scrub brush.

And those candles you burn in your office and the air freshener you spray to excess in the bathroom? Just stop eating stuff that gives you foul gas.

AcneVulgaris: Grables'Daughter: GAT_00: Grables'Daughter: I don't understand how they would distinguish if someone is wearing perfume vs. showered with a scented soap, etc.

Smell quantity.

Sure, but how would you legally measure that?

You would carry around a small, nausea-prone child. If the child barfs at a range of 10 feet or less from the perfumed person, it's too much.

What if you use peanut butter or gluten as an antidote?

Lsherm: How could they possibly even enforce this? What about soaps? Laundry detergent? Fabric softener? Do we all have to put up with horrendous BO because asthmatics can't take care of themselves?

Also, who in their right farking mind thinks what you smell like is something the government should have control over?

Exactly...Not everything needs to be legislated.

You don't see Texas or other sweaty Southern states adopting this. Do people even perspire in New Hamsphire?

Ummmmmm...new ham

Aarontology: People who wear a lot of perfume smell worse than smokers.

In my experience, they're usually the same person.

Imokwiththis.jpg

dragonfli: CSB time:

I work at a duty free shop, and as such, well, we have perfume. Lots of perfume. For a small store, I'm surprised at the amount of perfume we have in stock (and I'm amazed each time we get a counter-piling new shipment in that surprisingly fits on the tiny number of shelves we have on the showroom floor). And as a guy, well, whoop-de-doo, it's perfume. My Old Spice sticks serve me just fine.

I do not enjoy when customers spray twenty different bottles across the building. I do not enjoy it even more when they spray the cheap $10 bottles of Perry Ellis perfume that sits in front of my register, and even moreso when it's in my general direction. Cheap perfume is just horrible on the nose and eyes from a distance but even worse when it's at point-blank range. It's even more worse when it's cheap perfumes made by a shell company owned by your store's corporation (just as the duty free company also owns a farkton of liquor companies that put out some nasty shiat, too).

/we get price changes every 2-3 weeks and it's a biatch to re-label and mark down hundreds of bottles again and again
//how Paris Hilton is still relevant and has a perfume line is beyond me
///slashies! and csb!

How much do you get for a bottle of Uomo by Fendi? Argggh. I just discovered it's no longer being made. Shoot.

Two spritzes in the air in front of me then I walk through it. Had my lady pick the scent.

Klippoklondike: Don't know why anyone wears perfume or cologne to an office job

Scent triggers memory stronger than any other sense and has a powerful effect on emotions. If you smell nice people will have a very positive emotional association with you.

i used to say that people smelled like a perfume facory--then it hit me. i worked in a perfume factory, and it usually smelled a whole lot better than some people i run across.

Oh_Enough_Already: I'm curious: 100 years ago did most people with asthma just die?

It seems they're so delicate that just about leaving the house is taking their own lives in their hands, so how did they manage in the past when nobody cared, everybody smoked, and society wasn't in the habit of capitulating to the needs and whims of its weakest members.

No, one hundred years ago, the ones that had asthma likely died of some other condition before they reached puberty (since often asthma is cormorbid with minor conditions that require a little extra care in the neonatal unit today, and a very small coffin 100 years ago). Or they just plain up-and-died of a dozen other things, or yes, asthma took them. Or lung-cancer (as people with asthma were told to get some woodbine and light up, it's good for your lungs), heart-disease, malnutrition, diphtheria, polio, gonorrhoea, bubonic plague (still killing folks in the early 1900's in large numbers) and a dozen other nice things that antibiotics got rid of.
Or they died in industrial accidents in the coal-mines/steel-mills/textile-factories etc.
Or in child-birth, that was a good one for "decreasing the surplus population", or just plain 'ol starvation...

Living before the modern-era, whilst affording you great freedoms in the amount of tail you could bang, mightily sucked if you got ill, and that was usually quite often.
There's a reason a lot of families had 8 or 9 kids, and it wasn't due to lack of contraception (although that helped). It's because they had 12 or 13 kids in total, but no-one talks about the ones that didn't make it to 1.

I wish this was my state. Cubicle-land and heavy perfumes do not go together.

As someone that had to leave work a ciuple hours early a week ago when someone went crazy with air freshener I approve. I have a nice set of before and after pictures of my son after my ex wife washed his blanket in detrrgent with perfume. A rash over large portions of ones body can ruin your day.

TheShavingofOccam123: Ummmmmm...new ham

beantowndog: OlderGuy: I have noticed several women wearing something very close to Raid bug spray

Most perfume smells like bug spray to me, I've learned not to comment on it.

Pssst! They're trying to repel you.

We had a biotech sales rep that I swear was just trying to kill us all with her perfume. Had very extra super extra flamey gay exec at the place tell her to her face she would not get a sale from us until she took the perfume down to only maybe 20 or 40 sprays a day. Literally only time I ever used the reality of my allergies to make someone go away: "Lady, your perfume is gonna kill me, I'm sorry."

/Usually am the person that gets the sneezing fit.
//My body's belief that common things are chemical warfare is my body's problem, not yours.
///Not using crazy amounts of perfume is being POLITE, not something that should be regulated.

OlderGuy: As long as the perfume is subtle, I don't have a problem with it.. however, I have noticed several women wearing something very close to Raid bug spray.. makes my nose burn.. asked one woman what exterminating company she worked for.. she got very upset.. even moreso when several people near by agreed....

So they make Axe body spray for women, huh? Who knew.

"You smell like a French whorehouse."

I like this new homeopathic cologne....

Its called water.

RyansPrivates: Lsherm: How could they possibly even enforce this? What about soaps? Laundry detergent? Fabric softener? Do we all have to put up with horrendous BO because asthmatics can't take care of themselves?

Also, who in their right farking mind thinks what you smell like is something the government should have control over?

Exactly...Not everything needs to be legislated.

See, there's two kinds of people implicated in this. On the one hand are people who have either an allergy or sensitivity to fragrances and, in our hyper-narcissistic age, think that makes them one step above permanently and totally disabled. On the other, there are people who either have no sense of smell, or think their perfume is just divine and wish everyone would stop complaining about how badly it reeks.

If someone in the first group asks someone in the second group could they please wear less of their Chanel #2.5 because it makes them ill, the person in the second group immediately assumes the person in the first group is overreacting or making a big deal out of nothing or whatever; then the first person has to go to the office manager; then the whole thing snowballs out of control.

Most of the rest of us do not wear a gallon of foul-smelling perfume, or if we have unusual allergies or sensitivities (as I do) we either buy some antihistamines or ask our equally conscientious co-workers to take it easy on the new perfume for a few days. It's just the wingnuts on the two far ends of the spectrum--those who absolutely must wear their Eau d'Odor and those who absolutely cannot have any smells around them--who cause these brouhahas.

Jim_Callahan: OlderGuy: As long as the perfume is subtle, I don't have a problem with it.. however, I have noticed several women wearing something very close to Raid bug spray.. makes my nose burn.. asked one woman what exterminating company she worked for.. she got very upset.. even moreso when several people near by agreed....

So they make Axe body spray for women, huh? Who knew.

I used to work for the company that makes Axe. It used to be called Axis. We couldn't give that shiat away. Now with a market repositioning and a huge advertising campaign it is one of the hottest brands around. They also made a product for women called Impulse body spray, with 6 different scents. Any Farkettes remember this stuff? It was huge in the mid-late 80s and early 90s.

On the scene in New Hampshire:

Jim_Callahan: OlderGuy: As long as the perfume is subtle, I don't have a problem with it.. however, I have noticed several women wearing something very close to Raid bug spray.. makes my nose burn.. asked one woman what exterminating company she worked for.. she got very upset.. even moreso when several people near by agreed....

So they make Axe body spray for women, huh? Who knew.

New brand, just came out.

I'm sure it's just as horrible.

Tergiversada: Jim_Callahan: OlderGuy: As long as the perfume is subtle, I don't have a problem with it.. however, I have noticed several women wearing something very close to Raid bug spray.. makes my nose burn.. asked one woman what exterminating company she worked for.. she got very upset.. even moreso when several people near by agreed....

So they make Axe body spray for women, huh? Who knew.

I used to work for the company that makes Axe. It used to be called Axis. We couldn't give that shiat away. Now with a market repositioning and a huge advertising campaign it is one of the hottest brands around. They also made a product for women called Impulse body spray, with 6 different scents. Any Farkettes remember this stuff? It was huge in the mid-late 80s and early 90s.

I remember the brand Impulse, or at least the ads while I was growing up. Never actually tried any of the fragrances... They looked scary strong.

As someone working in NH, I approve.

Also, can we add in burning popcorn in the communal microwave?