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Canadian doctors advocate scent-free hospitals

perchance dreamer

Senior Member
Messages
1,691
How I wish that every doctor's office and medical practice would adopt the no-scent policy! One of my doctors has a clear requirement, but I find it's pretty rare.

Scents clog my sinuses and make me queasy. I don't have trouble with food scents, though.
 

whodathunkit

Senior Member
Messages
1,160
I find that smells from the disinfectant chemicals and bleach, etc., used in doctor's offices and hospitals affect me much more negatively than people's perfumes. And I don't think there's much anyone can do about those scents.

Lysol is the worst. NOTHING will drive me out of a room or building more quickly than the scent of Lysol spray.
 

maryb

iherb code TAK122
Messages
3,602
Location
UK
The vets waiting room is worse for me - ugh....don't know what they wash the floor with but it takes my breath away.
 

perchance dreamer

Senior Member
Messages
1,691
My vet's office is grim because they brew flavored coffee. Ordinarily, food scents don't bother me, but the flavored coffee does. If I think of it, I call them ahead of time and ask them to brew unflavored coffee when I'm there.
 

Jennifer J

Senior Member
Messages
997
Location
Southern California
@MeSci thank you for that!:)

I'm not sure if this should be posted as a new thread...the CDC has a fragrance-free policy for their buildings and employees. If I ever have the energy I want to copy it and give it to administrators and doctors at various medical facilities. Also, to stores and other places regarding the air fresheners in their bathrooms.

http://www.drsteinemann.com/Resources/CDC Indoor Environmental Quality Policy.pdf
If not up to reading the whole thing, pg 8 & 9 pretty much covers it. I gave those pages and maybe a few other pieces from it to my building manager, she use to roll her eyes at me regarding the cleaning chemicals making me sick, now she is much more understanding.

I also think there are several studies under PubMed that I'd like to someday print one or two of them to hand out (including harmful health concerns from breathing incense and some essential oils).

Here's to educating.
 
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minkeygirl

But I Look So Good.
Messages
4,678
Location
Left Coast
I used go cry sitting in a doctors office. I never knew why. They thought I was just overwhelmed from being sick. One ID doc told me I was bi-polar

A few years later I mentioned that to a doc that specialized in Environmental medicine and that I felt like was going to have a nervous breakdown in grocery stores. Immediately he said MCS and then it all made sense.

Cleaning products and pesticides did me in. I will say after DMPS chelation I no longer have the problem.
 

MeSci

ME/CFS since 1995; activity level 6?
Messages
8,231
Location
Cornwall, UK
I used go cry sitting in a doctors office. I never knew why. They thought I was just overwhelmed from being sick. One ID doc told me I was bi-polar

A few years later I mentioned that to a doc that specialized in Environmental medicine and that I felt like was going to have a nervous breakdown in grocery stores. Immediately he said MCS and then it all made sense.

Cleaning products and pesticides did me in. I will say after DMPS chelation I no longer have the problem.
You'd think that medical doctors would know that the nose gave access to the brain, and therefore that nasally-inhaled substances could enter the brain and have effects there. After all, some anaesthetics are administered this way. :rolleyes:

At my previous doctor's surgery/office I often became dizzy as soon as I entered the waiting room. It smelt weird in there. I almost fainted at least once.

I have also had the 'instant depression' effect - in my own home. A smell seemed to be coming in through the wall from next door. I was just sitting reading, when suddenly I was in deep depression, sobbing uncontrollably. Then the smell disappeared and my mood was instantly back to normal. I was left with tear-soaked cheeks, almost in shock, wondering what in earth had happened.

Neighbours' laundry perfumes are the bane of my life where I live. I have to wear a nose clip and breathe through my mouth in my own garden, when I want to smell the natural smells.

In an isolation room in hospital I was almost being driven crazy by multiple different bleeping noises that kept stopping and starting. I tried putting a pillow (lightly!) over my head to muffle the noise, but couldn't because it stank of perfume. The stress was enormous - it was like torture. I almost discharged myself from the hospital in desperation.

EDIT - just corrected a word - I have to breathe through my MOUTH in my garden!
 
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maryb

iherb code TAK122
Messages
3,602
Location
UK
My last short stay in hospital was like that @MeSci they just don't get the sound light and SMELL sensitivity, the sheets will have been laundered elsewhere, if they're boiled they don't need anything else, but of course they have to add fragrance, the country is obsessed with it, even the smell of the nurses deodorant knocked me so sick...I dreaded them coming near to me. I wasn't aware they ever smelt of perfume/aftershave so maybe there is a fragrance free policy in the NHS?
I have to say I am now addicted to Thieves oil though...I nearly passed out when decanting it into smaller bottles but its made my laundry so much fresher and you can't smell it when its dry. I don't know how it'd work if I had a smaller house and the utility room was nearer though....time will tell on that one, if the move comes off. (fingers crossed)
 

maryb

iherb code TAK122
Messages
3,602
Location
UK
The advice is 5 drops which I use in my own washing, but I put about 15/20 in for my dog's bedding, you can smell it when its wet but not when it dries. I may reduce it to 5 once the weather changes and I can't put washing outside to dry. Its pretty potent stuff. I've made a spray up to but haven't got round to using it yet as been too sick.