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Watch out Ontario, This could be next!
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| Jayx1 |
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Parents fight to ban perfume, aerosols in school
PIKEVILLE, Kentucky (AP) -- Kristian Childers hasn't been to school since she reported that a campus bully sprayed her in the face with perfume a year ago, causing a severe asthma attack that landed her in the hospital.
The 16-year-old said she is afraid to return to Shelby Valley High School until administrators ban perfume, cologne, and other smelly aerosol sprays that could be used as weapons against asthmatics. She is being educated at home while her family pushes for the ban.
"It's not just making me sick, but other people with asthma," she said. "I don't want anyone to go through what I've been through."
The school board voted down a proposal September 17 to ban students from bringing cologne, body spray or perfume to school, saying they want to protect the rights of students.
"You can't make everyone else's lives miserable just to accommodate one child," said John Blackburn, a Pikeville banker and member of the school board. "If you have a 15- or 16-year-old young lady and you tell her after gym class that she can't use deodorant to freshen herself up, you're going to have some problems with her and her parents."
Childers' stepfather, Tim Belcher, who is an Elkhorn City attorney, said he intends to sue the school district over what he sees as a safety issue. State and federal law requires school districts to provide for the special needs of children with disabilities.
The girl's mother, Doris Childers, said she is angry that teachers and administrators have done so little to protect her daughter from the potentially deadly sprays at school.
"My child has had to fight all her life just to breathe," she said. "She should not have to fear for her life on a daily basis just to go to public school."
Principal Forrest Dale Johnson said a ban on the products would be impossible to enforce short of searching through each student's pockets or purse every morning.
"We felt like we would open ourselves to all sorts of criticism and litigation if we passed such a policy," Blackburn said. "We've tried to accommodate her without infringing on the rights of the other students."
Doris Childers said the school district did make some accommodations for her daughter, including changing the types of cleaning solutions used in the school and allowing her access to a private restroom so that she could avoid breathing cigarette smoke in the ones used by other students.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Lung Association are working to create an asthma-friendly schools program to encourage schools to become safer for asthmatics. One of the recommendations is to make sure indoor air is free of allergens and irritants, including odors from paint, cleaning supplies, and perfume.
Already, doctors in eastern Kentucky, a region with an unusually high number of child asthma patients, routinely post signs in their offices asking people not to wear perfume or cologne out of respect to asthma patients.
But in the meantime, Belcher said Kristian is essentially being denied a free public education by not banning the smelly products.
"Why do we need this stuff in a school," he said. "For God's sake, they've banned chewing gum."
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| DancingQueen169 |
| They have banned perfume at my work.....a lot of people are allergic to it |
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| Jayx1 |
Here's an old article i found:
| quote: | Last Updated Wed Jun 21 16:01:49 2000
HALIFAX - The province of Nova Scotia has become a battle ground in the war between fragrance makers and those who say scents make them sick.
Opponents to perfumes say the products are being made with carcinogens
On Tuesday, the Scented Product Education and Information Association of Canada (SPEIAC) -- which represents the cosmetics, perfume and toiletries industries -- launched a month-long campaign aimed at clearing up what it calls perfume "myths and misinformation."
The group chose Halifax for the campaign because the city launched a "no-scent encouragement program" in 1996, urging people not to wear fragrances to help reduce illness and discomfort suffered by those with scent allergies or asthma.
The city does not have a ban or by-law against fragrance, as many news sources erroneously reported earlier this year when a Halifax student was suspended from school for wearing scent.
The perfume industry says the anti-scent campaign is a bad one. "The anti-scent policies -- both formal and informal -- that are prevalent in the Halifax area appear to be based on an appalling lack of factual information," SPEIAC spokesman Carl Carter told a news conference Tuesday.
But that's not the way Betty Bridges sees it. She's a nurse from Virginia who suffers from Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and worries about the chemicals used to make scented products. She says the ingredients are no longer natural, but are made with carcinogens and irritants.
"A lot of these chemicals are absorbed into the body. They are stored in fat tissue. They are found in breast milk."
The industry disputes that. They say evidence shows there is no danger from fragrance products. Charles Low is with the Canadian Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association. He says scents are safe but people who wear perfumes or aftershave should use them sparingly.
"Our message is that people need to be responsible in their use of fragrances and scented products so as not to give offence," Low says.
Low says the idea is to keep smells within what he calls a "personal scent circle." That means not wearing anything that someone can get a whiff of more than an arm's length away.
That notion is lost on Albert Donnay who supports the restrictions.
"Everybody knows when they get into an elevator with somebody who put too much perfume on this morning, the perfume stays behind when that person gets off the elevator. There is no such thing as a scent circle. It's a scent trail."
Donnay says that trail includes chemicals and irritants that are not just "offensive" to some Canadians. They make them sick.
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PS: this ban remains in effect to this day. |
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| Jayx1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by DancingQueen169
They have banned perfume at my work.....a lot of people are allergic to it |
ANd you dont have a problem with that? ... perfume has been around since the middle ages and NOW we have a problem with it? |
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| DancingQueen169 |
| I don't really like it, but there isn't much we can do when it is causing people to have asthma attacks. Our work environment has to be acceptable for everyone to work comfortably... |
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| Jayx1 |
I think those people have mental issues. Why all of a sudden is this causing asthma attacks? Sorry but i dont buy this whole "cool to have an affliction" attitude that we seem to have now.
Things are getting out of control. |
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| dallastar |
oh brother. . .
re: the perfume... that's great that it was banned - mind u does it smell more like b/o now?? just outta curiousity. . . .;) |
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| Jayx1 |
| why is it great? I bet you wear deodourant and perfume dont you? or at least id hope so! |
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| dallastar |
| quote: | Originally posted by Jayx1
why is it great? I bet you wear deodourant and perfume dont you? or at least id hope so! |
yeah of course i wear deoderant - btu i have been to a lot of workplaces where they ban perfumes/ heavy use of perfumes b/c people are a llergic - that's all - and that sometimes poeple don't know how much can be ENough when spraying on their perfume or calogne!<_sp? i know!>
so yeah - end of me discussing this shizzle... night night - I have to wrap prezzies!:D |
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| goodnet |
| The next thing you know, they'll start banning peanut products (such as peanut butter) in certain classes, or worse yet, entire schools - to protect children with alergies to certain nuts. This will be due to kids throwing peanut butter sandwiches at eachother during food fights, where some unfortunate allergic kid gets hit by accident by a white-slice square in the face. Pure weapons. |
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| Endlesswave |
| quote: | Originally posted by Jayx1
I think those people have mental issues. Why all of a sudden is this causing asthma attacks? Sorry but i dont buy this whole "cool to have an affliction" attitude that we seem to have now.
Things are getting out of control. |
Dude, it's not "all of a sudden causing alergy attacks".
My mother got bitten by a bee and became alergic from just that one time, all it takes it one time and that's it. As for banning perfume I don't think they should ban people from wearing any unless people are THAT alergic to it. what they may consider doing is banning people from brining a bottle of it to school. Who the sprays someone in the face w it?:whip: |
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| Jayx1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Endlesswave
Dude, it's not "all of a sudden causing alergy attacks".
My mother got bitten by a bee and became alergic from just that one time, all it takes it one time and that's it. As for banning perfume I don't think they should ban people from wearing any unless people are THAT alergic to it. what they may consider doing is banning people from brining a bottle of it to school. Who the sprays someone in the face w it?:whip: |
ban bees!! |
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