This is how many people feel about fabric softener and dryer sheet scents in clothing. These and perfumes can cause problems for others. Sorry you have to deal with this.

Thanks Mamapinky0 - I'm hoping the fan works.

Get a small air purifier and put it on your desk. I have two from Target, Honeywell brand.

Terilyn-Will that help better than my fan? My cubicle is open

I'm sorry you're having to deal with this and with an unsympathetic manager. The older I get, the more scents have bothered me too. And the more manufacturers seem to be adding scents to everything. Even garbage bags? Can't seem to get away from it anymore.

Anyway, you could try writing a letter to your HR department and ask them to write a generic letter to all staff, reminding everyone that many people are sensitive to perfumes, shaving lotions, etc, and with the new office cubicle configurations it has made it worse for some.

I used to work in a fragrance-free office. It was divine.

OutsidePlaying - I don't think a letter will do. They're working on a site where we can send in ideas or complaints. I'm waiting for it to be up and running and then I'm going to post something about this.

Tell them your allergic and get a note from the DR. if you need to. I hate all the perfume women wear. I don't wear any myself.

I have asthma, and the people in my former unit, including the manager, insisted on using perfume. I retired early because of problems with asthma and depression.

I despise scents, including fabric softener. I was recently given some tops and they took several washings and line drying to get the fabric softener/perfume smell out of them.

Our doctor's offices and clinics have signs clearly stating no perfumes, yet older women insist on using liberal amounts. It's absolutely nauseating and headache-inducing.

Our grocery store rearranged the aisles and now they don't have the pet items in the detergent aisles anymore. My eyes burn when I have to walk in those aisles.

Oh, I so agree with how annoying this is when you are sensitive to scent. I can't walk behind someone in a grocery store or share an elevator with anyone these days without being gagged by whatever ubiquitous scent it is they are using in laundry detergent and fabric softeners (I guess, because I smell it on nearly everyone). I have to avoid laundry aisles in stores - I buy all those products at my food coop and most are scent -free.

I had house guests twice this last summer and both sets smelled so strongly of that scent that I could barely stand to have them in my house and couldn't wait for them to leave. Taking them around in my car was torture! Before the next visits, I'm going to give them a month's notice ahead of time that I need them to switch to unscented products (allowing time for things to get washed without the scent) before they come. It's really awkward, but I'm not going to suffer through that again. I have some friends I can no longer visit for overnights because the bedding has that scent. If I'm traveling by car, I can take my own bedding and do.

I worked with only one woman in an all female office who wore perfume. Luckily, I was her supervisor and had some clout in requesting she not wear it to work. It would have been awful if I'd had to depend on others to make that request if they didn't take it seriously.

If you can get a Doc to verify that you have an allergic reaction or asthma, the company may need to make a reasonable accommodation under the ADA by becoming scent free.

I think the air purifier would work better. We used to have season tickets to the ballet, same seats for every performance. The woman sitting in front of me wore so much perfume I was ill by the end. We couldn't get seats as good as the ones we had if we changed so we dropped them.

My neighbour has those stinky air fresheners plug-ins and incense burning regularly. Anytime I get anything from her that's given to me in plastic containers, even the containers are infused with the smell. Horrible. It permeates everything. If I get food, I throw it out as even it smells like it.

Sometimes, even though my neighborhood has 1/2 acre or larger lots in the woods, I have to come inside when the neighbor is drying the laundry, because that horrible scent permeates the air. I can't imagine being so oblivious.

Most people that use the stinky laundry stuff don't even smell it themselves anymore. And I know many associate the scent of perfumed laundry as clean. IMO clean laundry just smells clean not like a fake flower or cotton candy. I rarely wear perfume..occasionally a tad bit of lavender, real not synthetic but thats pretty rare. I have an asthmatic kiddo and although thru testing synthetic scents are not a trigger for him, they trigger headaches for me often. As for fabric softener, I mostly only use it on synthetic fabrics and bath towels..even than I mix a scented one with Downy unscented until there's only a hint of a scent, so whisper soft your not sure if your even smelling it.

I have an older man as a friend & he must use the whole bottle of after shave. When ever I run into him he always wants a hug, which is fine. But I can come home & my husband will say "you ran into Chester ." I have to change clothes, because I smell of his after shave. I am allergic to bee stings, I carry an Epi-Pen. I buy everything unscented.

Our scent sense fades over time after continuous exposure to a smell. That's why sometimes people who wear perfume constantly tend to put on too much. While the scent may be sensed by others, they've been wearing it on an ongoing basis and their own sense of smell no longer detects it. You can experience this yourself - the next time you have extended exposure to something with a strong smell, maybe while cooking or otherwise, try going outside for 5 minutes and then return to where the smell is strong. You'll find on returning to it that the smell is much stronger than it seemed when you left.

I detest strong perfume scents, most especially in confined spaces like an elevator or in a theater, or when coming from an adjacent table in a restaurant. When that happens, I ask to be relocated and the waitstaff never fails to smirk and understand my request. The sense of taste relies on the nose and a pungently strong perfume smell does to taste what a loud noise does to a quiet conversation - it drowns it out.

At my pulmonary rehab, we are never to wear any scent. I try to avoid wearing perfume when I wear clothes I might wear to rehab as the scent will stay in the fabric (especially cashmere). But I must say that when I was in London, I wore scent every single day and I'd forgotten how much I enjoy it! Back again to church on Sun and when I got out at night.

Lol, that makes you one of the reasons why people change their seats, Anglophila!

I am in total sympathy with those who have a difficult time with scents. I'm not allergic nor asthmatic but truly despise being wrapped in other people's cloying scents.

I am very grateful that my fitness center, doctor's office, and my physical therapy facility are all fragrance free environments. Sometimes, someone sneaks in and manages to leave their scent trail behind, but not very often.

Oh, the smells that come out of dryer vents of neighbouring houses when they do laundry! Ugh!!!

My downstairs neighbour wears so much cologne, we always know when he comes and goes because the whole hallway/entryway reeks. When we happen to be heading to our vehicles and he opens the door to his.....wow. I think it's a good quality cologne, but hugely and unnecessarily overpowering. Hmmmm he's divorced, maybe he's on the hunt and thinks that's an attraction?? LOL

Thank you all for your comments. I may just invent a purifier you can discreetly insert in your nose and breathe nothing but clean air. Funny why someone didn't invent it already. LOL

Surround yourself with fragrance-free candles. Make it look like a palm reading session.

Because of strong scents I have told people to leave my house (sons teenage friends years ago). Had to leave my seat at my sons college graduation. Have just about given up going to church, why take a shower when you can just add more perfume!

I have asthma and copd, it really affects my life!

I find it interesting that when I was young (sometime back in the Stone Age), women all wore scent and usually had their "signature" scent. I never smell Channel #5 that I don't think of a favorite aunt! I wear a scent my mother first discovered when she left NW Arkansas to attend Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia at age 19. There was no such thing as "real" French perfume in her small town and she had saved her money to buy a tiny bottle. It took her many weeks to make a decision and she finally chose Caron's "Pois de Sentaur". She wore it the rest of her life when she could find it. I decided to also wear it about 15 yrs ago - not sure Caron is still making it but I bought a large bottle which I keep in a dark place, tightly sealed per instructions.

I think many modern scents are cheaply made and utterly overwhelming. The old ones ladies used to wear never caused complaints the way they do today.

"The old ones ladies used to wear never caused complaints the way they do today."

Sure they did. Maybe people were less outwardly vocal and more tolerant about it than they are today, but I have many memories of comments and reactions people would make when encountering someone with far too much perfume on. Especially on elevators, and especially after the smelly person stepped off to leave others in the elevator car to recover.

It's better today because just like smoking in public places, there has been enough public discussion and outrage that the perps understand they are less welcome than they'd like to be.

I always thought senses dim as we age, but I have become more sensitive to perfumes, 409 for sure, cigarette smoke, paint, almost anything smelling strongly. Those horrible Febreeze things put in the car vents. Why do women have to wear scents that can be smelled from 5'. I'm shopping, I don't want to smell you!

When they sell scents on qvc, they speak with pride of times strangers ask what scent they are wearing. Really?!

Linda, sorry you are facing this. Maybe the offenders don't know! Don't give up.

Women and some men did all wear scents; many still do and I think it caused problems for some then, too. But with the rise in asthma and other breathing problems, I find it unconscionable that people continue to wear it simply for their own pleasure. I've come to believe that your right to wear scent ends at my nose. It seems the right to fresh air, unadorned by perfume and other optional scents, should be a priority for all of us.

When I was young, a long time ago, and before I developed asthma, I wouldn't leave the house without spraying some Halston on. It seems that people have been more sensitive to all kinds of things.

As far as the office goes, you may have to politely talk to the offenders and tell them how difficult it is for you. It might be awkward to begin but can be handled tactfully. They may not even know how heavy handed they are with the fragrance. I think people forget the about word "sparingly". Just a couple drops is plenty. There is a time and a place for it and, as we see here, workplaces, theaters and churches are not the place.

Good fragrances are made with natural essential oils and they do fall out over time. The remaining fragrance is rancid and very powerful. Many ladies keep these perfumes for years, sometimes in the refrigerator. it would bowl you over just to walk past them.

What about the perfume bombs some folks put in their vehicles? I am not asthmatic nor do I have breathing problems at all ( thankfully) but I have ridden in other's cars and it just chokes me immediately. They always seem to put the fragrance device on the air vent on the passenger side. I don't know how they drive around like that.

I switched to 'reduced risk' products with nicotine and haven't had a cigarette in 2 almost 3 months, in that time I've noticed that my sense of smell is returning and I no longer feel a need to practically bathe in perfume because there's no cigarette smoke smell on everything I wear anymore.

Since the trend towards body sprays which have a lot of water and alcohol in them to fill the bottle along with a quarter being the actual scented stuff, people get used to whatever body spray they've got on a lot faster (in my experience) and if they can't smell it they think nobody else can either. The sprays are cheap in comparison to even eau de toilettes at the lower end of the department store fragrance counter and a good eau de parfume can price well beyond most shoppers' finances will allow them to afford. The sillage (how much area a particular fragrance will 'spread out' and almost follow the wearer) can be significant or a perfume can be more of a 'skin scent' which means you mostly can only smell it if you lift your wrist close to your nose or dip your head down close enough to your cleavage. I know that fragrance can bother a lot of people so now that I've quit smoking I've been working to be more conscientious about sticking with the 'skin scent' category and sparingly. It helps to be able to smell things again though. :P

Jennifer D, good for you. Keep the momentum going and push yourself to drop the e-cigarettes too or whatever you're using. Then you can truly say "I've quit".

I'm pacing myself. I didn't think I would ever quit cigarettes though! Right now it's a combo of sometimes the gum and sometimes an ecig that is sold under the name of "Juul" which uses nicotine salts + vegetable glycerin + flavor pods. It's taking some time to figure out how many pods (sold in 4 packs) I'd need in a month but definitely turning out to be fewer than I'd anticipated. The mister is thrilled, but my mom's excitement over the whole quitting thing has been at an insane level. :P

I have a lot more cash going into the 'miscellaneous fun money' jar these days too, buying cartons of cigarettes was expensive *before* the latest California tax on tobacco products.

Remember Tabu perfume?

Wow. Do I ever remember Tabu. One drop could fragrance a whole room. Just like Emaurade.

Thinking back I can remember perfume having a huge role in seduction...I think it still does judging by magazine ads. I don't really think a tiny dab of perfume is all that bad...I'm talking a for lack of a better word a hint of a scent not dousing in it. And not in a doctors office for sure. I bet a lot of us wore scent in our younger years. There's a lot of money being made by scent manufactures so people are buying it. I mentioned Tabu which was a powerful scent...but if the tiniest amount was used it was seduction at its finest..once upon a time. LOL....I could see me wearing it now and trying to dance around the hubs..he'd accuse me of trying to kill him. Haha.

The very worst when I was in college was Estee Lauder's "Youth Dew"! It was the scent of choice in my dorm and the girls had that scent isn every single product made in it - body lotion, bath gel, perfume - you name it. You could smell my dorm 5 blocks away on a Friday or Saturday night! I still hate that fragrance...

Amen to "Youth Dew" I used to ride the bus to work and was nearly smothered by the stuff every morning.

Tabu was popular when I was married. I bought a bottle. First time I wore it my husband asked me not to, in no uncertain terms. He said it reminded him of the smells around the rather unsanitary area where he had been stationed. I have mostly stuck to English Lavender since then.

Oh "Youth Dew" memories!

My MIL wears it everyday. When our daughter was a little girl, every Tuesday was grandma's day to spend with her. The scent would linger on DD afterwards from all the snuggle time. It's a fond memory.

Dear MIL will enjoy her 92nd Birthday soon and that bottle of "Youth Dew" will be waiting to be unwrapped.