Tuesday, January 26, 1999
Colognes, perfumes can take your breath away - really
BY MIKE PULFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
“When it hits me, my throat thickens up and feels like fire,” says nurse Connie Lammers of Milford. “Within a minute, it goes to my chest, this tightness, then coughing, sneezing, wheezing ... And it'll last for several days.”
What attacks Ms. Lammers are fragrances — mostly perfumes and colognes, many newly acquired as holiday gifts. Half of all perfumes and colognes are bought between October and December, according to NPD BeautyTrends of Port Washington, N.Y.
With many people sporting new smells, plus restaurants, theaters, churches, office buildings and other public places being buttoned up tightly during severe winter weather, people such as Ms. Lammers are suffering.
The severity of her attacks depends on the exposure. She has been known to drop out of line at the grocery if someone “drowning in perfume” happens to be nearby. At department stores, she seeks entrances that don't lead past a cosmetics counter.
Obviously, Ms. Lammers doesn't use perfumes, and her children can't use them in the house. Room deodorizers are out. Windows must be open if she burns a candle. And, while she has no allergies or asthma, she carries an inhaler in her purse for smell emergencies.
Second-hand fragrance doesn't pose the same public health threat as second-hand smoke, but it still can take your breath away.
“It's real,” says Dr. Thomas J. Fischer, an allergist with Group Health Associates of Cincinnati. “Some people with respiratory problems — who don't have a lot a reserve, let's say — will not go out to parties and things because of it.”
Dr. Patricia Ghory of Cincinnati Allergy and Asthma Center Inc. recalls one patient “who started to vomit when she smelled perfume.”
“If your nose is already allergically turned on, it's super-sensitive,” says Dr. Donald Pulver, an allergist with Allergy Asthma Immunology of Rochester, N.Y. “I call it twitchier. It doesn't take much perfume or odors to trigger a reaction.”
And it's not little old ladies who smell like flower shops who are the only culprits. Some men splash on after-shave as if they're in a TV ad.
While the nearly 50 million Americans with allergies and the 17 million more who have asthma are most susceptible, up to half the population can suffer side effects from perfume, Dr. Pulver says.
That's because fragrances aren't allergens like dust or animal dander, which can cause you to have a stuffed nose, clogged ears, or itchy eyes or mouth.
With perfume, the trigger is a chemical in the fragrance that can become an irritant. But unlike hay fever or food allergies, no skin test detects the offending element.
Actually, you don't even need to sniff an irritant to get the full impact. A nerve reflex transmitted through the respiratory tract or the eyes can leave you sneezing, wheezing or tearing.
Researchers in Sweden clamped the noses of nine volunteers and had them breathe in a perfume or a placebo. Writing in the European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, the scientists reported that several were bothered by the scents.
It could be the scent, the person wearing it, or how much he or she puts on.
Fragrance manufacturers guard their recipes. But the ingredients include water, organic chemicals and a “fixative” that prevents the aroma from fading quickly, says Robert H. Paine, visiting professor of chemistry at Rochester Institute of Technology.
The fragrance interacts with your body chemistry, Dr. Paine says. The result is in the nose of the beholder.
Dr. Fischer, who has offices in Kenwood, Anderson Township, Clifton and Crestview Hills, says underlying problems can be treated medically, but that, “Ideally, it's best to avoid the irritants.”
He also has noticed an increased sensitivity to people with breathing difficulties, probably linked to smoking restrictions and discussions about proposals for peanut-free zones in commercial airplanes.
“Five or 10 years ago, people came in with more heavy scents,” says Ruth LaPlatney, a family nurse practitioner in internal medicine at Greece, N.Y., Health Center. She once had to leave an exam room because of a patient's perfume. “I just don't notice that happening any more.”
In response to sensitive subscribers, some magazines have taken out scented strips and department store “spritzers” have holstered their atomizers.
Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati's consumer goods giant, puts perfume in most of its brands, but offers some deodorants, body washes and other products in “no-scent” or “sensitive-skin” versions, says spokesman Mindy Patton.
“The concern has been there for a while,” she says.
Patti Singer of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle contributed to this report.
Is there room for strangers in our homes?
St. Louis swells for Pope's arrival
The pope's schedule
I-75 gas spill should be cleared by morning rush
Riverfront commission ready top go
Cincinnati Riverfront Advisory Commission
West plan falls short of wishes
West plan's details
Western residents, county split on development plan
Conductor Shaw called a giant of choral music
Man charged with setting home on fire
N.Ky. loses educators convention
Tax foes to battle increase for schools
Mourners make trend of wake
Actress comfy with role in 'Couch'
Colognes, perfumes can take your breath away - really
Etiquette for the over-perfumed
Ft. Washington Way closed next two nights
Hand transplanted in Louisville
2 plead guilty in slaying
Aquarium signs get attention
Beating death examined
Butler already owns favored site for jail
Covington divided over street widening
Custody war brings sea of legal paper
Developers are building 2-acre park in Blue Ash
Dogs, cats give elderly a boost
Eastgate area park-and-ride premieres
Fort Wright settles claim
Inclusion of disabled lauded
Lebanon activist's traffic-death trial to start today
Middletown sprucing up parks
Music museum picks up pace
Prison guard waives drug case hearing
Safety work will close Ohio 73
Time running out for Ky. GOP
TRISTATE DIGEST Asthma attack kills Lebanon prisoner
Trustees expected to approve contract with UC professors
