Chemical Sensitivities  

How to be Scent-Free at Kehilla So Everyone Can Attend Services & Events

Please come scent-free to all of Kehilla’s services and events. This will help create a safe and healthy environment for Kehilla’s members and guests, especially those with multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), asthma that is triggered by fragrances and chemicals, and related health conditions. What does it mean to come scent-free?  By “scent-free” we mean fragrance-free and non-toxic.  To help make Kehilla safe, healthy and accessible to people with these health conditions, Kehilla requests that we all do our best to do the following:

• Please only wear fragrance-free products to Kehilla. It is especially important to avoid wearing strong fragrances.  Please also avoid wearing any scented products to Kehilla, if possible. 

• Please refrain from wearing clothes to Kehilla that were washed in scented detergents, fabric softeners or dryer sheets.  Only use fragrance-free, environmentally-safe laundry products instead. Emissions from clothes washed with conventional fabric softeners or dryer sheets are particularly hazardous to many people with asthma, MCS, and related disabilities. Even the emissions from fragrance-free versions of these conventional fabric softeners and dryer sheets can be hazardous. Many fragrance-free, environmentally-safe laundry products are available locally and are listed in several documents that are linked to below.

• Please avoid wearing clothes to Kehilla that were conventionally dry cleaned or dry cleaned using hydrocarbon solvents.   These clothes emit indoor air pollutants that are especially toxic to many people with MCS and related disabilities.  The chemical emissions continue for quite some time.  Some dry cleaners that use hydrocarbon solvents claim to be “environmentally friendly” although none of them are.   If you can’t avoid wearing clothes that were dry cleaned, please remove the plastic bags, thoroughly air the clothes out before wearing and avoid the scent-free section of our rooms.

• Please avoid wearing clothes that were stored with mothballs to Kehilla.

• Please avoid wearing brand new clothing to Kehilla, unless you have first washed them with fragrance-free laundry products. Fabric finishes in new clothes or bags can be toxic to many people with MCS and related disabilities. Please also avoid wearing fresh shoe polish to Kehilla.

• Please try not to wear scented clothes (e.g., clothes that smell of perfume, other fragrances, chemicals or smoke) to Kehilla. If it isn’t feasible to wear completely scent-free clothing, please try to make sure that your clothes are as scent-free as possible and stay away from the scent-free section. Please see the references below for tips on how to get these scents and chemicals out of clothing.

• Please avoid wearing fresh hair color, perms, or curl relaxers of the conventional varieties to Kehilla.  Please try to do chemical processing to hair at least a week before coming to Kehilla or use less toxic versions of these products, such as those found at http://www.lesstoxicguide.ca . Even if you use these less toxic versions, please avoid the scent-free section until you are sure that your hair is no longer giving off any chemicals or fragrances.

A few more important notes about how to help make Kehilla safe, healthy, and accessible to our members:

• Some products that are labeled as “unscented” actually include “masking fragrance” which can trigger asthma attacks, migraine headaches and serious health problems for some people. A small percentage of products that are labeled as “fragrance free” also include “masking fragrance.” So please check the product’s list of ingredients to make sure it doesn’t say “fragrance” or “masking fragrance.” Products that are both natural and labeled as “fragrance free” are usually fine.

• Essential oils can also trigger these serious health problems for some people.  While avoiding artificially fragranced products is particularly important, because their emissions are especially toxic for many people, it is also important to avoid wearing naturally-fragranced products at Kehilla, whenever possible.  Essential oils and other natural fragrances are in many personal care and laundry products, so please check the lists of ingredients.

• Second-hand fragrances can trigger these serious health problems for some people, even if the person wearing the fragrance is some distance away. (In this manner, second-hand fragrances are similar to second-hand smoke.)  While only strong fragrances will trigger asthma or migraines for some people, other people can develop serious health problems from even very low levels of fragrance chemicals, other chemicals and/or natural fragrances.  So if you can’t be completely scent-free, please keep a good amount of distance from the scent-free section.  Also, even if you plan to sit away from the scent-free section, please plan to be scent-free or as close to it as possible. Professor Pamela Reed Gibson reports that chemical sensitivity “afflicts between 4% and 33% of the U.S. population, depending upon the level of severity of the definition used.” So even if you are sitting far from the scent-free section, it is likely that you may be sitting near someone who is at least somewhat chemically sensitive.

• If someone tells you that something that you are wearing is giving them health problems, please be willing to move away to accommodate them, if feasible.  Similarly, if someone moves away from you as you approach, please do not take it personally--the person may have environmental sensitivities to chemicals, smoke or natural fragrances on your clothes, hair or body.

Thank you for helping make Kehilla safe, healthy and accessible to as many of us as possible!

References:

• Some of the recommendations in this article were adapted from the Checklist for Personal Accessibility, a Pacific Southwest District/Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) policy.  This document is available online at http://www.www.pswduua.org/media/docs2/Accessibility%20checklists.doc.

• Some locally available fragrance-free personal care products and laundry products are listed at http://eastbaymeditation.org/accessibility/scentfree.html  . This webpage includes fragrance-free hair care products for African American people and other people of African descent.  It also includes more useful tips on how to be fragrance-free and non-toxic. Other widely available fragrance-free products are listed at http://fgcquaker.org/gathering/2010/fragrance-free  and http://sites.google.com/site/stasasministry/Home/resources-2/fragrance-free-resources.

• For tips on how to effectively wash clothes and remove stains with unscented, environmentally-safe common household products see http://healthychild.org/blog/comments/recipes_for_safer_cleaners/ and  http://www.sustainablemontereycounty.org/green-cleaning-advice.html and scroll all the way down to the “Laundry” heading.  Feel free to use white vinegar in the wash—your clothes won’t smell of it.

• For a detailed discussion about how to remove fragrance chemicals, other chemicals, smoke and other odors from laundry, see http://organicclothing.blogs.com/my_weblog/2007/02/removing_odors_.html . However, please disregard the website’s instruction about using washing soda—the website appears to recommend using too much of it and it is not as effective as other methods. The article’s other recommendations--such as soaking clothes in water with borax or baking soda--should be more effective. To be safe, don’t soak your clothes for more than a day at a time. Finally, if you are concerned that the fabrics’ colors might fade, you may wish to use less baking soda than this article recommends.

• For information about how many “environmentally friendly” dry cleaners are actually toxic see http://www.greenamericatoday.org/pubs/realgreen/articles/drycleaning.cfm . This site includes information about safer alternatives for cleaning delicate clothes.

• In her article, "Of the world but not in it: Barriers to community access and education for persons with environmental sensitivities," Dr. Gibson summarizes prevalence studies which suggest that a sizable percentage of people in the U.S. are chemically sensitive.  She also reports that respondents in her study of people with chemical sensitivities (and other environmental sensitivities) cited fragrance in particular as “the major barrier to community access and education.”  This 2010 article was published in the journal Health Care for Women International and a preprint of this article is available here: http://www.mcsresearch.net/journalpapers/access&barriersgibson.pdf