Odor tyrants: Those sensitive to scent fight back

Karen Kraig has been known to raise a stink about strong smells.

The Sept. 11 attacks caused the Manhattan financial consultant’s already acute sense of smell to go both ballistic and bronchial, leaving her wheezing whenever she encounters a whiff of perfume, laundry detergent, fabric softener or window cleaner.

As a result, Kraig instructs clients to show up for their appointments fragrance-free — or else.

“If someone comes into my office wearing perfume or with a strong shampoo or laundry soap smell, I have to ask them to leave,” she says. “On occasion, I’ve made people wear a garbage bag over their clothes because the detergent smell was so fierce I couldn’t endure it.”

Kraig is not alone in her sensitivity to strong smells. Fragrances were named “allergen of the year” for 2007 by the American Contact Dermatitis Society. And a 2003 study of more than 10,000 mothers and their infants in England found air fresheners, deodorants and aerosols were “significantly associated” with headaches in moms and earache, vomiting and diarrhea in their babies.

But while the physiological effects of perfume and other powder-fresh products continue to be hashed out in medical circles and research labs, another question looms large for those with sensitive noses and/or sensitive feelings when it comes to being asked to don a Hefty bag or forgo their favorite hand lotion: How far is too far when it comes to sticking up for your nose?

The answer to that question might be easier to sniff out if it weren’t for the fact that not all noses are created equal. Dr. Alan Hirsch, founder and neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation of Chicago, says sense of smell differs from individual to individual. Other factors, such as age, gender and whether you’ve had lunch, can also affect sensitivity.

“Women have a stronger sense of smell than men. Certain ethnic groups have better abilities to smell,” Hirsch says. “And there are also different physiological states that will intensify olfactory abilities, like when you’re hungry or you’re pregnant or if you have certain diseases or conditions.”

Indoor smoking bans have also had an impact on our noses.

“People are no longer being inundated by smoke,” he says. “They’re aware of the ambient aromas around them and they’re also more sensitized to them.”

The problem is that what some consider ambient aromas, others perceive as a relentless chemical assault on their respiratory system.

The use of fragrance in cosmetics, candles, hair spray, household cleaners, lotions, laundry soap, maxi pads and plug-in air fresheners has exploded in the last few years. (Downy alone offers 20 different scented fabric softeners including Mountain Spring, Turquoise Frost and Tahitian Waterfall.) And “sensory marketing” has made it nearly impossible to open a bill, read a magazine or stay in a nice hotel without encountering some form of scented sticker, perfumed envelope or blackberry-infused newspaper.

Add to that the raft of teen body sprays, celebrity scents and, yes, even dog perfumes, and it’s no wonder that those with scent sensitivities feel they’re slowly being suffocated by an increasingly large and smelly enemy.

Not surprisingly, some have declared war:

• A city bus driver in Calgary in Alberta, Canada, kicked a woman off his bus for overdoing her Very Irresistible by Givenchy last March.
• Last June, a Massachusetts woman filed a lawsuit against her former employer after she was hospitalized for an allergic reaction to a coworker’s perfume.
• In December 2006, environmental illness activists in San Francisco got chocolate chip cookie “scent strips” banned from bus shelters the same day they were installed after pointing out that the “Got Milk?” advertising stunt might cause asthma attacks and allergic reactions.
• And a Nova Scotia high school teacher went so far as to call in the cops back in 2000 when one of her students refused to quit using Dippity Do hair gel despite the school’s fragrance-free policy.

“We’re bombarded by chemicals all day long,” says Aileen Gagney, an asthma and health program manager for the American Lung Association of Washington who suffers migraines and breathing issues due to multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS). “And there’s no need for it. Does your house really have to smell like pine in order to be clean? Do you really need to smell like Jennifer Lopez? We’ve been sold such a bunch of goods by the commercial industry.”