“I need to wear a mask around people due to artificial fragrances, car fumes, etc. ‘Normal’ everyday activities, such as putting petrol/gas in the car, can no longer be done.
This photo represents that fact that we can often overcome things that seem impossible. Taken in California in Disneyland on our family trip from Australia to California this year thanks to ‘safe’ accommodation at a friends house, oxygen, mask, activated carbon scarfs & bedding, truck full of supplements & healthy eating. “
~ K.B.
⇔
To learn more about masks see
When We HAVE to Wear A Mask to Breathe and Function
⇔
Please take action in whatever way you can to ensure we ALL have the right to a healthy environment, and so industries are stopped from polluting us for profit.
also, please
Be fragrance-free. It’s good for you, it’s good for me.
⇔
P.S. I have no control over the ads or the RELATED posts shown below.
Seriously "Sensitive" to Pollution 
Wow I thought I was really very sensitive to fragrances but I can tolerate them, I don’t have to wear a mask fortunately. I have switched to a fragrance free body wash and moisturizer. My husband feels asthmatic some days. I ask him to avoid using perfumes and deodorants for a week at least to see if it is making any different, but he doesn’t listen, he loves those fragrances. I quit using perfumes a few years ago, but since I got married, they are back in my life. I got a new perfume the other day. Why did I do that. My husband tells me that it looks bad to roam around smelling foul. (Sigh)
Clean has no smell!
Your husband could be addicted to fragrance chemicals! The industry is unregulated and conducts research on how to target our brains, usually the amygdala, to make us buy more… and the advertising is designed to make us feel bad if we’re not covering everything up with a questionable fragrance concoction.
Many people do become addicted, and afraid to stop and smell what life is like without chemicals added to everything…
but… learning about the ingredients should help:
https://lindasepp.wordpress.com/2015/12/16/the-fragrance-industrys-toxic-secrets/
My husband has stopped listening to me. He thinks I read too much and whatever pops on the internet is contradictory. He says every time some new research comes up we can’t bend to it.
I’m sorry you have to deal with that. The chemical industry has manufactured a lot of doubt with their biased “research” that is designed to confuse people, and of course, then people don’t like to admit that they fell for it, and will sometimes dig in their heels and keep doing something harmful because they don’t want to believe the truth.
Somehow, though, love will show the way… Maybe you can find why your husband feels so insecure without fragrance, what his fears are about smelling human, and simply clean, and then you can reassure him that it’s what he’s made of that you love about him, and not the chemicals he adds to his body?
It is confusing indeed. I wish that were enough but is the outside world that makes him do that – he uses perfumes when he goes to work. Besides what can you do when he says he really likes fragrances. :/
If you have told him that some fragrances make you feel unwell, and he continues to use them, then I don’t know… I don’t understand the people who choose products (and corporate profits) over other people’s health and well-being… that doesn’t make any sense to me.
I do tell him to use the fragrances in an open space far from where I am. He is considerate of that. But since I don’t have a big reaction to fragrances it doesn’t stop him.
When I was a teenager, some cosmetics and cleaning products “bothered” me. I also had to open all the doors and windows to air out the perfume after my parents left for a night out. I did eventually find one perfume I could use, but only very rarely, I preferred to not use it. I just thought that we had to wear some for special occasions.
Later, I had to give up more and more toxic products without knowing what was really going on. And then, the installation of a toxic carpet in the same building I lived in totally threw my body (and life) out of kilter. I was poisoned, and despite doing everything possible (some helpful things have not been possible due to a lack of financial resources) I have not recovered and am totally housebound now.
Something to think about, and to discuss with your husband… What if he refuses to stop if you become more and more sick? What if he leaves you when you can no longer work? These are difficult questions, but it’s better you learn the answers and make some plans while you still can, because we don’t know when the pollution will become too much.
Hopefully, a good heart to heart talk (or a few) will generate more understanding and compassion, and a reduction in the use of harmful products, and both of your health and well-being will become more important that products <3
It’s sad that you have to be housebound because of this. The questions you raise are practical and honest. Something tells me that he loves me more than the perfume and if I get really sick someday he will be there fore me. I choose to have that faith jn him. Thanks for sharing your life experience, it is something to learn from. Thank you for all the advice. :)
Preventing severe MCS/ES is a lot easier than having to live with it. I hope you are able to retain your health and that your husband learns how satisfying it is (from many perspectives) to live clean without the smell of fragrance chemicals.
Sperm damage and birth defects are also linked to some fragrance ingredients:
http://www.breastcancerfund.org/clear-science/radiation-chemicals-and-breast-cancer/phthalates.html
Truth be told, it is tough to care about the generation that is yet to come when you are so overwhelmed with your own life. It takes a great amount of efforts for some to change their lifestyles.
Yes… we are not taught to care about future generations and most of us are definitely overwhelmed by our own realities these days. There are so many things that need to be changed… but we can change… one step at a time is usually a good way to go about it … most people don’t have to change everything suddenly… like after an earthquake or a fire… but if someone develops MCS/ES, then it’s a lot like living in an earthquake zone, with never ending aftershocks, for the rest of our lives… the chemicals other people use can disable us without any advance warnings, and they are everywhere… every fragranced person out there causes our brains and bodies to experience the equivalent of an after shock… and can take days or even weeks to recover from.
When we realize this, prevention, changing now, becomes the easier thing to do…
I liked your blog post, “Interview with Zero-Waste Chef Anne Marie Bonneau”. There are some very good examples there.
One point that jumped out was the plastic – did you know many fragrance and plastic chemicals are the same?
Another was making things from scratch. We can choose safe, non-toxic ingredients to clean with too!
There are many little things we can do that all add up <3
Thank you for caring too (and for speaking up about littering)
Thanks. No I don’t know which chemicals in plastic and fragrance coincide. I find inspiration in people like Anne Marie. I have learnt to make my own dishwasher detergent using baking soda, salt and a few drops of liquid dish soap. I need to find an alternative to the dish soap in it. I even make my own facial scrub using dried orange peels.
Women’s Voices for the Earth is a fabulous organization to follow. They have great resources and reports: http://www.womensvoices.org/
I’ll check them out. Thanks!
They are on facebook too