Fragrance Free??

Fragrance Free Dance Floor

Every so often we must inform our dancers about the need for avoiding fragrances at our dances.

You may feel that your lovely expensive perfume or cologne  is a gift to others, but for some of our dancers it is a serious problem.

THIS IS NOT A PREFERENCE ISSUE -- it is a serious health issue for a significant number of people!

This is because about 15% of the general population, and about 20% of our dance community have adverse health effects from perfume and solvents, and become ill from even small amounts of fragrance products.  Reported adverse health effects from perfume range from migraine headaches and asthma attacks to cardiac and neurological symptoms.

Because of the large number of people on the dance floor, even small amounts of scent on each person add up quickly to intolerable amounts, so we are asking each of you to be conscious of your choices.  THIS MAY NOT JUST BE PERFUMES, but also heavily scented hair care products, cosmetic items, or clothing that has been washed in strongly fragranced laundry soaps.

Even if you cannot easily change out all your cosmetics on short notice, we especially encourage you to avoid wearing clothing to our dances that was dried with fragranced fabric softener sheets, and to avoid perfumes and colognes.   Even when the fragrances themselves are benign, the chemical carriers added to perfumes to disperse the odor are strong chemicals and  known carcinogens.  Because complete labeling is not required on perfumes it is another hidden chemical exposure that our chemically sensitive dancers need your help to avoid. 

For more information on fragrance free alternatives, check out the Seattle  dance website listed here: http://www.oz.net/~bestockp/CascadiaWebsite/fragrancecopy.html