Posted By John-Mark
As a result of an employee having an asthma attack in a toilet where aerosol air freshener had been sprayed, a blanket ban on such air fresheners has been imposed at my workplace. The ban extends to all rooms and also lifts.

However, this raises two issues:

1. What non-aerosol alternatives are available, which would be less likely to cause an employee to have an asthma attack?

2. How far can we go with this one? What about personal use of perfumes?

If anyone has encountered similar problems, I'd like to hear from you.

JM

Posted By Lilian McCartney
Hi John-Mark,

Aerosols affect my asthma/sinuses as do highly perfumed places so I understand the problem.

With regard to the use of perfume i ask for these not to be sprayed in the office but int the toilets as I can easily walk away from them.

You can get block air fresheners but be wary as when new these are very highly perfumed.

Are there no windows or ventilation you could use instead (or is it that soemtimes this needs a hand after curry night)?

Lilian

Posted By Robert K Lewis
One could of course tackle the reasons toilets that smell.

1) Lack of adequate ventilation

2) Poor cleaning regimes for urinals

3) Poor sanitary hygiene arrangements

4) Overuse of deodorant blocks in urinals.

2 and 4 are actually related. The reason for urinal smell is Uric salt build up and cleaners tend to use limescale removers when this is not the issue. They then use deodorant blocks by the handful in the hope it will kill the smell. These simply slow down the water flow and leave slow dissolving material in the trap - thus increasing uric salt precipitation and hence the smell. Look at the alternative methods for urinal traps and if you must use them never allow more than 1 deodorant block at any one time in a urinal.

I personally detest these spray deodorisers they are generally over powerful, contain organic solvents etc and are harmful to the environment.

Bob

Posted By LMR
i too react to aerosol sprays; to such an extent that i have to have a puffer spray that relies on breathing as the gasses now used to propel are dangerous to some asthmatics. I also react to some perfumes and bleaches to a level that requires my carrying an epi-pen. Previously aerosols used ODS ozone depleting substances to propel which were fine for me but not the planet. this is a known problem as the butane based propellants are known 'sensitisers' that cause reactions rather than allergens; anyone at any time can have a reaction to a 'sensitiser' the usual remedy is to remove them from the vicinity of exposure; however, if that reaction turns into an ashtmatic attack it can be more than just a slight problem or inconvenience these attacks can kill.
For air fresheners there is a block one that comes in round plastic containers in a square box which neutralises odours; this is used on submarines also to neutralise and rid odours; where any build up of propellants is not a good idea.

Posted By Alan Hoskins
Have you checked out Ozone generators?

Lots of info available on the web.

Alan

Posted By Robert.
You could, perhaps, try a canary as an early warning device

:)

Posted By Brett Day

Off at a tangent, I'm not a diagnosed asthmatic but have had asthma type symptoms as a result of high pollen counts, I do find that I avoid certain high street chemists at certain times of the day when there are a lot of people as being anywhere near the perfume counters makes me gag and I find my throat starting to tighten. Once I walk out it all goes back to normal.

One chemist near me has the perfume counters at the entrance so to get anywhere in the shop I have to walk through this fog of perfume...

Strikes me as odd, when I worked for a manufacturing company we had to have all sorts of extraction equipment yet in these stores nada...

Does anyone assess the exposure to employees?