Scents To Die For -- Literally

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Scents To Die For -- Literally

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W.

September 1999

" My dear friend, " French novelist Marcel Proust (1871-1922) wrote, " You know

how I can't bear any perfume... the last time you were so good as to come and

see me... I was obliged to take the chair you sat in and keep it out in the

courtyard for three days. "

As one of a growing cohort of persons who are made ill by perfumed scents and

other chemical odors, I can identify with Proust's problem. Many times I have

had to air out furniture occupied by perfumed visitors, an exercise many find

curious bordering on eccentric.

However, science is gradually catching up with what those of us among the

ranks of the chemically-sensitive already know all too well anecdotally; many

purpose-made scented products contain poisons that do our bodies serious

mischief.

New Scientist magazine recently reported on a survey of 14,000 pregnant women

by epidemiologists at the University of Bristol which found that aerosol

deodorizers and air fresheners may cause headaches and depression in women

and ear infections and diarrhea in babies.

" Aerosols and fresheners contain dozens of volatile organic compounds such as

xylene, ketones and aldehydes, which can be toxic in high doses, " said the

report, which suggested that these chemicals contribute to health problems by

making the skin more permeable and weakening the body's defences.

In July 1998, 16-year-old Capewell of Manchester, England died due

to spraying his body with too much deodorant. had 10-times the

lethal dosage of propane and butane in his blood when he suffered a fatal

heart attack. The coroner's report determined that chemical fumes built up in

his body following months of " high " deodorant use.

" When we told him he was using too much, he said he just wanted to smell

good, " 's father Kieth Capewell told reporters. " You wouldn't have

thought that could have been the cause for someone to die. What a price to

pay for smelling nice. "

That was of course an extreme case, but we chemically sensitive folks pay a

heavy price nearly every day because other people insist on the chemical

version of " smelling nice, " although we would characterize it somewhat

differently.

Almost everyone today walks around in a cloud of chemical fumes carried on

their persons -- sort of like the character " Pigpen " in Peanuts cartoons --

only in this case the cloud is invisible. Constant low-level exposure to

synthetic chemicals -- virtually all of them known poisons in larger doses --

is not normal for humans, except in the distorted perception of

industrial/technological society..........................

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