Think About It: Fragrance-Free Policy

Fragrance is in a lot of our personal care products. Shampoo, soaps, laundry detergent, deodorant, perfume/cologne, makeup...the list goes on and on. Because the use of fragrance is so widespread, it is a daunting and seemingly impossible task to implement a fragrance-free policy in an institutional setting. One thought for how this could be implemented include an information session where the potential adverse health effects of fragrance is presented along with suggestions for alternative products. If possible, using fragrance-free products should be incentivized. Perhaps, there could be a personal care product swap where individuals bring in their personal care products with fragrance and can exchange them for fragrance-free products or even receive some kind of monetary incentive so they can purchase alternative, fragrance-free products. Along the same lines, an event can be organized to feature vendors who sell fragrance-free products. On the opposite end of the spectrum of incentives, the institution can formally ban fragrances and put in place a disincentive, like a fine. This may, however, be very difficult to enforce.