Why True Potential Health Services is a Scent Free Environment
You’ll notice when entering our office a sign that reads “We Share the Air.” We ask that each and everyone of you when entering the clinic refrain from wearing perfumes and colognes or any other scented body and beauty products. We are one of many establishments including public swimming pools, offices, churches and schools who make this request. Is this request legitimate?
Let’s just focus for a moment on the perfume industry. How many chemicals are included in one little squirt of your smells-so-good daily application of perfume? According to the environmental working group the fragrance industry uses a stock of 3,100 chemicals to create their scents. That’s only the listed stock chemicals – recent studies have been showing ‘secret’ ingredients that are being used frequently in scents as well.
Unlike food, fragrances do not need to be labeled with an ingredients list – so you can’t know what you’re putting on and ultimately ‘in’ your body (as your skin absorbs what you put on it). Some recent studies have shown traces of these chemicals in brain cells, breast milk and within the umbilical cord. These micromolecules go everywhere inside of our body, and our body doesn’t always know how to process and eliminate them. This chronic low-dose exposure to chemical toxicity is a real thing that effects our health and well-being.
Besides the long-term effects of exposure there are many people who have serious allergies to any exposure, including both plant based essential oils and the chemical ingredients in body-care products. Being near a scented product can make some people really, really sick.
Common Symptoms of Long-Term Exposure to Scented Products
- Headaches
- Shortness of Breath
- Dizziness
- Nausea
- Asthma
- And Others
So please, share the air respectfully with your health-care professionals and with other patients at the True Potential clinic. Please, do not wear hair-spray, perfumes, essential oils, or any other heavily scented products when visiting our office.
Scent-Free Policy Resources
I’ve included some links below to some great websites to help you learn more about choosing safely when it comes to your beauty care products.
- The Environmental Working Group
- The David Suzuki Foundation and its Go Fragrance Free partnership with the Canadian Lung Association
- Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety