 |
 |
| |
Web-posted:
1:19 a.m. Feb. 15, 1999 |
|
Suffocating Scents |
| |
|
|
By BOB LaMENDOLA
Hollie Hoffman rushed her mother to a Plantation hospital during an asthma attack in November, but she was the one who wound up choking for breath.
Two emergency room therapists were wearing perfume, a whiff of which sets off an allergic-type reaction in Hoffman and thousands of others. Her lungs constricted and her throat closed so much she could not breathe and had to leave.
"I'm appalled, it was a hospital. They're supposed to be helping us, not hurting us," Hoffman said. "Perfume is an asthma trigger. This was in the respiratory area. What are they thinking?"
For people with sensitivity to chemical vapors, hospitals can be aroma minefields as risky as department store cosmetic counters. About 15 to 30 percent of the population have at least mild sensitivities, with about 6 percent called severe, university studies show.
Hospital hand lotions, cleaning agents, laundry soap, air fresheners, swabbing alcohol, pesticides and hygiene products such as cologne and deodorant give off potentially harmful vapors, patients and scientists said.
Chemical sensitivities vary widely in severity, from those who are simply annoyed by a scent to those who plunge into a respiratory attack in seconds from just a hint of many vapors. The lungs, heart, brain and blood pressure all can be affected.
Sensitivity on the rise
With new fragrances and chemicals being developed every year, sensitivity is on the rise, studies show.
The hospital industry is becoming more aware of the situation, and a few elsewhere in the country have set aside "fragrance-free" rooms where only unscented products and employees are allowed.
But most hospitals respond case by case and have a hit-and-miss record, national and local activists said.
"Some hospitals don't want to address the issue because it would require things, action," said Dr. Albert Robbins, a Boca Raton specialist in environmental and allergy medicine who treats chemical sensitivities.
"But it can be done, and it should be done. It's not that difficult," Robbins said.
"[Wearing fragrance] is like polluting your air. It seems like such an innocuous thing, but for some people, it can send them into big problems for hours or days."
Some activist patients want hospitals to ban fragrances totally. Others said it's enough to have rooms that can be quickly made scent-free and to follow strict policies for handling patients there.
South Florida hospital officials called the complaints exaggerated, saying only a tiny fraction of their patients report having a problem with chemical sensitivity.
Hospitals said they take whatever precautions are needed by a chemically sensitive patient, if ordered by the doctor.
That includes cleaning a room to remove vapors and using scent-free staff, cleaning products, and linens laundered in unscented soaps.
"Obviously, if there's a clinical indication and the person can't be around any scent, we would accommodate them," said Lisa Kronhaus, a spokeswoman for Memorial Healthcare System, the public hospitals in south Broward County.
But the question is how far to go to meet the needs of the few. No local hospitals ban fragrances outright or set aside scent-free rooms.
That's unnecessary, said officials at several hospitals.
"I'm not going to liken this to freedom of speech, but are you going to tell employees they have to wear unscented deodorant? Do you want to infringe on the personal liberties of your employees?" Kronhaus said. "We don't have very many complaints."
Public unawareness
The hospital where Hoffman had her attack, Westside Regional Medical Center, used to have a special cluster of rooms set up for patients with asthma and breathing problems. But that was discontinued, spokeswoman Kathy Natella said.
Hoffman and others said few people realize the dangers of simple perfume to them. Unlike natural fragrances of the past, most perfumes now are made up of chemicals, including federally designated hazardous wastes such as acetone, ethanol and ethyl acetate.
Hoffman used to wear cologne every day. But about three years ago, she began growing bothered by it. Her eyes watered, she got headaches and she could not breathe when co-workers wearing perfume would come near.
Her sensitivity worsened by the month, and her doctor has put her on disability from her job as a legal secretary.
People with multiple chemical sensitivities often become trapped in their homes, unable to go to work, shops or friends' houses. It's worse than an allergy, Hoffman said, because vapors cannot be seen and avoided as can allergens such as food.
"My friends, I can't get them to stop wearing it around me," she said. "They think if they put it on in the morning and see me in the afternoon, it will be gone."
Virtually all hospitals, including Memorial and Westside, have policies that instruct employees to wear no more than "light" scents or face discipline, hospital officials said.
"With personal hygiene, we trust our employees to use good judgment," Kronhaus said.
But chemically sensitive patients said hospitals do not always police their employees.
Westside's policy forbids fragrance in all patient-care areas, Natella said. But in Hoffman's case, the perfumed employees worked in the emergency room. Natella declined to comment, saying she could find no record of the incident.
At Memorial Hospital Pembroke in Pembroke Pines, one patient said she was rushed to the emergency room seven times with respiratory failure brought on by perfume-wearing employees coming into her hospital room during a December stay.
Just a matter of time
This was despite a sign on her door from a nursing supervisor ordering no scents inside, said the patient, Andrea, a law enforcement officer who asked not to be identified fully. She complained after each incident, but perfumed employees returned.
Kronhaus declined to comment. Memorial's medical director, Dr. Stanley Marks, said in a letter to Andrea that if a doctor ordered isolation from scents, the hospital would "make every effort to deal with this unusual and difficult request."
Betty Bridges, head of the Fragranced Product Information Network support group in Virginia, said she hopes it's just a matter of time before hospitals -- and their staffs -- notice the growing number of people with chemical sensitivity and voluntarily eliminate scents. She likens it to secondhand smoke.
"I think in medical facilities it will eventually become part of the dress code," she said.
|
 |
|
