Kingston Council policy battles scents; Public to be told when odorous products used

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Council policy battles scents; Public to be told when odorous products used

Posted By Pritchett

Posted 23 hours ago

http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=856597 & auth=+Pritchett

City hall has adopted a new policy that will protect the public from the scented

cleaning and maintenance products used in municipal buildings.

The policy requires staff to notify the public when scented products, cleaning

products, detergents, paints, pesticides or other chemicals are used.

These products can be debilitating for people with allergies or environmental

sensitivities.

The policy will go into effect in the coming weeks.

City councillor Rob Matheson said the new policy is long overdue and will go a

long way toward protecting residents with sensitivities from chemicals.

" Politicians recognize that people do have health consequences to these products

that are being used and they're more willing to put in place regulations to help

make our buildings more accessible to everyone, " he said.

City politicians unanimously approved the new policy at last Tuesday's council

meeting.

The new policy, brought to council for approval by the city's accessibility

advisory committee, is an extension of the municipality's existing policy that

prohibits city staff from using perfume, cologne and heavily scented personal

products.

Many institutions, including hospitals and other workplaces, in the city and

across the country have similar rules about personal products.

The City of Kingston is one of the first municipalities in this area to take

additional steps to protect people from the use of chemicals.

Barry Kaplan, the city's accessibility co-ordinator, who helped bring forward

the new policy, said it aims to protect the public from cleaning and maintenance

chemicals used in municipal buildings while the existing anti-perfume policy

urges staff to not wear scented products.

" What we came up with recently is an augmentation to that [earlier policy], " he

said. " The emphasis is not so much the individuals in the workplace. It's the

industrial chemicals used in the maintenance of the building. That would be

things like painting the walls, using rug cleaners, furniture polishes and

bathroom cleaners. "

The policy doesn't prohibit the use of these chemicals, but aims to inform the

public of their use.

Ads will inform public

" This could be through the advertisements the city runs in the Whig or

through the electronic media [on the Internet], " said Kaplan. " So when the rugs

are going to be cleaned and you need to come into City Hall to pay a parking

ticket or to get your marriage licence, you can consider making alternate

arrangement if you have a known reaction. It's basically to provide citizens

with that information, and the expectation is that citizens can make an informed

decision. " The city already has a policy that urges the use of environmentally

friendly products for the regular cleaning and maintenance of its buildings.

The new policy deals with those products that couldn't be replaced by

environmentally friendly ones.

The need for a new policy was raised about a year ago by the city's

accessibility advisory committee, which identifies barriers to people in the

community.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission recognizes environmental sensitivities as

disabilities.

" This may be below a lot of peoples' radar in terms of accessibility issues

because often when you think of accessibility you think of wheelchairs or

braille, hearing aids - you don't often think of scent issues, " said Kaplan.

" But, clearly, people have allergic reactions to scents and chemicals in our

physical environment. "

The new policy will also likely result in signs being posted where chemical

products have been used in municipal buildings.

" That would be one of the details that I'll have to work out internally - who

creates the signs, who puts them up and what the message is going to be, " said

Kaplan.

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Article ID# 856597

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