top
Environmental
Health
Network

EHN [of California]
P.O. Box 1155
Larkspur, California, 94977-0074

Support and Information Line
(SAIL) 415.541.5075
A 501 (c) (3) non profit agency.



The Environmental Health Network of California
Files Petition With the FDA



June 28,1999

Dockets Management Branch
The Food and Drug Administration
Department of Health and Human Services, Rm. 1-23
12420 Parklawn Dr.
Rockville, MD 20857

    Re: 99P-1340/CP 1
    Petition to Have Eternity eau de parfum Misbranded

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing because I fully support the petition to have Calvin Klein's "Eternity eau de parfum" declared misbranded. I believe that all fragrances should be saftey tested and until they are should carry a warning label stating they have not been adequalely tested.

Many, if not most, fragrance's and perfumes have become, over the years of being exposted to them, a health hazard to me. I cannot go anywhere without being almost "fumed" to death by over-exposure to perfumes and perfume products. It makes me quite ill in many ways, depending on the perfumes and the chemicals used in those products. For this reason I am now , for the most part homebound.

On those few occasions when I must go out, I come back home with everyone's perfume odors clinging to my clothes hair and skin. The perfume is so strong on me just from what other people are wearing that it is overbearing. By then I am having many physical reactions and inflammation of the brain.

Because of the brain inflammation and pain caused by perfumes and other fragrances I now have to take a seizure medication known to relieve brain inflammation five (5) times a day... I also have to take regular blood tests. The medication is expensive. I have no choice.

In my opinion, fragrance products and perfume, are as much a hazard to our health as cigar's, cigarette's and "second hand smoke. We are all being forced to breathe "second hand fragrance's" and to even end up wearing it whether we want to or not.

The "harm" of breathing "second hand smoke" on everyone's health has now been realized. WAKE UP breathing the toxic chemicals from perfumes and other fragrances is no different. It is all the same thing, TOXIC CHEMICALS !!! We are all breathing this into our body and brain and absorbing it through our skin.

Because of the many chemicals used in the wide variety of fragranced products, I now need to use oxygen due to the fact that I have Reactive Airways. Depending on the fragrance I am exposed to I may encounter breathing difficulties and require the use of oxygen. For that reason I must keep oxygen on had at all times.

The company that I get my oxygen supply from, sent someone out to my house to test me in the beginning . She wanted to see if I would qualify to have my oxygen paid for. She tested me when she first came in and the oxygen level in my blood tested normal. We waited a few minutes for her to do a second test . After breathing the perfume she was wearing for five minutes, the test result was quite different the second time. Breathing perfume for just a few minutes showed the "oxygen" in my blood had dropped to a great enough degree that I easily qualified to get my oxygen paid for by insurance.

Now, if that is not a Red Flag then I don't know what is. There needs to be some serious testing done on the chemicals used in perfume and other fragrance"s. This testing should be done in labs and by those that do not have a vested interest in the outcome.

Breathing chemicals that cause the oxygen in the blood to decrease Is Not Good. Breathing chemicals that cause you to need oxygen because you cannot breathe Is Not Good. Breathing chemicals that cause inflammation in the brain and headaches, Is Not Good. Breathing chemicals that cause gastro-intestional problems/reactions Is Not Good.

Guess what, the chemicals in perfumes and other fragranced products "do cause" this and many, many more negative health conditions and symptoms. Second Hand, perfumes and fragrances are very, very hazardous to everyone's health.

I am asking that this matter be looked into and that something be done about it to protect our health and the air that we all breathe. In this case, what one person wears, that has fumes and odors, goes out into the air around them and we "all" have to breathe it. Often it hangs heavy in the air and lingers for a long time even after the perosn wearing the perfume has left the area. It truely is "air pollution" in the same way that a smoker pollutes the air.

Do not forget that babies and children with young lungs and developing immune systems breathe the chemicals from fragrances too. It is up to adults to protect them from harmful substances. If there were not harmful chemicals used in the making of perfumes and other fragrances then there would not be so many people getting sick from breathing them. It is just that simple.

We should not be forced to wear someone else's perfume, anymore than we should be forced to breathe someone else's cigar or cigarette smoke. The second hand smoke issue has been delt with thankfully. The perfume issue is of the same urgency in my opinion.

Sincerely,

Patricia Rentz



Comments? (Barb's email is no longer valid, please contact EHN) Please put WWW in subject line. Thanks.


Please check back often as we are always adding valuable links to our pages of Links.

As with all organizations, EHN depends upon your contributions of time and energy, as well as your membership support.


(http://www.ehnca.org/ehnindex.htm)

ehnindex.htm -- 11/8/99

The Environmental Health Network (EHN) [of California] is a 501 (c) (3) non profit agency and offers support and information for the chemically injured. EHN brings you topics on this page that need your immediate attention The URL for this page is http://www.ehnca.org/www/ehnact.htm