WE WON! All it took was starting to have an asthma attack while talking to the acting manager of my apartment complex in the office Friday afternoon, after being exposed for about 1 minute. As we talked about the problem (I hadn’t complained about the previous system – but I explained that whatever that scent was had been a fairly routine trigger, whereas this was much more aggressive) I began wheezing noticeably, and had to sit down. Within about two minutes, the wheezing was serious enough to interfere with my ability to speak, and I was using my rescue inhaler for the second time.
I told her I had to get upstairs to use my nebulizer and take some medication. She emailed me a few minutes later saying she had been unable to dismantle the box mounted on the wall, so beat it to death with the handle of a mop, and had them put the pieces into several bags and place it outdoors.
This afternoon she said they held a meeting at the management’s central office and decided to have them removed permanently from all the buildings they manage.
VICTORY FOR THE LUNGS!!!
I still think there needs to be a class-action lawsuit to force the companies (this one was Aire-Master) to STOP!
Hooray!!
Has anyone else noticed how we have been swamped with “scents” in the past few years? I thought it was bad when I had to hyperventilate and then
rush past the cosmetic departments in department stores, but now I can’t even find garbage bags without “scents” that make me sneeze and cough! Not one brand!
Now buildings, from hotels and office buildings to apartment buildings (including mine – we are currently having a tussle over it) are falling for slick sales people telling them what they really need to put their ultimate brand on something is a particular “scent.” (At first I thought it was just the chi-chi hotels and resort-type condos around town. I was wrong.)
[Every time I go in or out of the single accessible entrance to my building (and also the only one to the mailboxes), I have to use my rescue inhaler twice and get through it as quickly as possible. This also means I can’t use the gym any longer. Can you tell I’m pissed??]
The lung rebellion
I’ve been on a campaign in recent years to persuade drivers for Uber and Lyft around DC to STOP with the damn chemical “air fresheners.”
I have explained to them patiently that the chemicals are:
1. not safe to be inhaled, especially in enclosed areas and when those enclosed areas get heated up by the sun during the day;
2. have never been tested for safety on humans -and aren’t required to be because of the lackadaisical approach our country takes to commerce (laissez-faire capitalism at its umm … best?); and
3. inhalation of “air fresheners” and similar products have been linked to cancer, heart disease, and can trigger asthma attacks virtually immediately in those who are particularly sensitive (like me).
So why do it? Why spend upwards of $10 a month on chemicals which don’t really “remove” unpleasant odors, but merely deaden your ability to smell them temporarily? And do so while causing you serious potential harm?
Because they are afraid to repel a rider with the smells left by a previous passenger’s leaky shopping bag, or cooked cabbage and other smells from his leftover dinner last night that he forgot to take into the kitchen.
True fresheners
Is there an alternative? Absolutely. Would I bring it up if there weren’t?
Single best air freshener is – fresh air. Open the windows. Drive with them open for a bit. (Thoroughly clean that air conditioner, replace the filter and clean and disinfect the vents to remove any mold -if you don’t normally do that in your car. Huge source of smells.)
Next best, something my grandmother and mom did – so I do, too: Use baking soda. Take a plastic take-out food container with a tight-fitting lid, put a generous amount of baking soda in the bottom, add a few drops of whichever oil you like the best. (Oils will last the longest.) Punch a few holes in the lid, fasten it on and keep it in the car. Refresh it periodically with more oil. After a particularly odoriferous trip, pop the lid off and leave it on the front seat overnight. In the morning the odors should be gone.
Food-grade flavoring oil (not perfume, not massage oil, not incense). FOOD! ALL-NATURAL! This means real cinnamon oil, lemon oil, vanilla extract.
For some more ideas, check out this article in Scientific American.
