Stunk out at Wal-Mart.

[Bibbyman]

Oh man!  Yesterday Mary and went shopping for "stuff".  Normally we shop some rainy day during the week but we've had no rain for quite a while and the cupboard was bare.  One stop was the Super Wal-Mart. 

Anyway,  I'm in there maybe 30 minutes and had to leave.  My eyes were burning.  My sinuses were burning.  My head was pounding.  My lungs were shutting down and I was starting to shake.  I set in the Durango while Mary finished up.  We intended to work when we got home but I was feeling too bad.  I walked around outside until later in the evening and was feeling better by bedtime.

Mary was knocked out too.

It wasn't the store so much as the people in it.  My Gowd!  Do people even realize how strong their scents are that they put on?  I'd rather live downwind of a feedlot in Kansas.  At least that smell is organic. 

I'm sure I'm not the only one that's sensitive to the smells of perfumes, colognes, body washes, deodorants, fabric softeners, on, and on. 

We wash our cloths in as scent free soap as possible.  We hang them in the great outdoors and would never use those Bounce things in the dryer.  We use scent free bath/hand soap.  We use unscented deodorant.  Still we get a lot of scents in the house from printed material and other products. Just reading a new news paper or magazine will cause my eyes to water and my nose to run and sometimes trigger a sneezing fit.

[WH_Conley]

When I saw the title I thought you had too many beans.

I know what you mean. My wife is very sensitive to some smells, female smelly water seems to be right up there at the top. I have had to change after shaves a couple of times. I finally just gave up and use rub alcohol now, when I do shave. She worked at a factory one time and this one material they brought in had a different smell to it. She thought she could tough it out. The floor person/foreman or whatever the title called me at home. They took her to the ER as she was going down. Respiratory distress.

Personally, if you can't bath, I would rather smell BO than some of the fragrances you mention.

[SwampDonkey]

No balsam fir Christmas tree for Bibby then, because they smell strong of balsam. And I have known a person or two that react badly to it.  ;)

[sprucebunny]

All those scents drive me crazy. Even passing someone on the sidewalk, my eyes will water.

I spent an hour trying to find a shampoo that I could stand the smell of. They all smell like a fruit I don't want to eat. And just when you find a product that's bearable, they change it.

There must be a very broad spectrum of sensitivity to smell. Really makes me wonder what dogs or cats smell ??? How can they stand being even more sensitive than humans ???

[SwampDonkey]

I just use baby shampoo on what little stubble I have up there. :D

[zopi]

Yeah...most stink bait makes me ill...

I have not been in a walmart for about six months...amd do not miss it.

[bill m]

My wife has the same problem. Just a small wiff of some perfumes and such will cause her to lose her voice.

[Bibbyman]

No balsam fir Christmas tree for Bibby then, because they smell strong of balsam. And I have known a person or two that react badly to it.  ;)

We sold some firewood to a customer a few years back.  We had to make sure we had no eastern red cedar in it.  They had a daughter that was deathly allergic to ERC.  I don't know where they could move to but they were in the wrong state.

Not all perfumes give me this reaction.  Sometimes a woman will walk past and have the nicest scent on, not overpowering, and it doesn't bother me.  It must be made from some other basic chemical.  

I never, ever go down the detergent isle in the supermarket unless I hold my breath.  I passed it one day and spotted a woman spiriting something like air freshener or fabric spray in the air and walking into the fog.  I came around a couple of times and she was still at it.  I would have been dead.  I'm not sure if she was testing them out or trying for a high.  

I suffered all the time when I worked in the office.  One guy was an Irish Spring user and had some aftershave cologne at his desk he's splash on a couple of times a day.  I couldn't get near him.  

My cube mate and I would come back from lunch and continue to visit a bit before getting back into work.  Every day about that time we'd be overwhelmed by some smell.  One day we tracked it down.  A lady that set some 50 feet away would "freshen up" after lunch and go back to her desk.  We let her know how far her aroma carried.  She blushed and laughed but didn't stop or cut back on the Peee-Ueeee.

[LeeB]

Add me to the list of folks that are allegic to perfumes and after shaves. Not all of them, but quite few. I've had to get up and leave from resteraunts and other such places when someone came reeking in.

[zopi]

Being on a ship...with closed ventilation...and some of the young ladies had to be trained in the limits of application...
Yuck.
When it is all guys no problem...(well, mostly...see the Martha Stewart thread...) we just all stunk. I even got to like the smell of ami.e amd lube oil working on subs...but eau de toilet? Ick.

[Dave Shepard]

I suffer from this as well. It's funny, people who don't suffer from over-sensitivities think you are just making it up. We had someone rent one of our shop spaces at work last winter to stain some siding. I couldn't go back in the shop for two weeks, and could smell the stain for months. I can't be anywhere near anyone frying anything, my entire respiratory system gets irritated and I can't breathe.

[sandhills]

Bibbyman, you mentioned the girl that was allergic to erc, I put one in my first little house I rented one year for a Christmas tree  :.  I was so proud, heck I even decorated it up all by myself, then I woke up about 2am physically sick, for someone that grew up around it his whole life you'd of thought I'd know better  :-\.  The tree went out the door, decorations and all, I never smelled anything that intense other than maybe anhydrous, and it took a long time to get the smell out.  That tree was only about three feet tall to boot.

[Roxie]

My youngest son is allergic to pine.  We found this out when he was four years old, and had brought the Christmas tree inside and he came down with severe bronchitis, just like he had the Christmas before.  I didn't make the connection, but his father did and we took the tree outside on the porch.  He improved.  We've used a fake tree and greens since.

The only perfumes to which I am not allergic are those with a patchouli base, and if I encounter a woman wearing Estee Lauder I have to get the inhaler out.  One day, as I was approaching the doors to our local mall, a woman that was inside a set of double doors triggered my allergy and I had to leave before I ever got inside.  She was behind two glass doors and was strong enough to incapacitate me.   :

[bill m]

I have to ask, are these allergies something everyone has always had or have they developed over time. Could it be a new chemical that is being used as a propellant in perfumes and aerosols? My wife has just developed her allergies in the past few years.

[SwampDonkey]

Could be, we are all just a big experiment. Something in the air or something stuck in the food to preserve it. Take your pick I guess. Someday they'll tell us.  I blame it on plastics, can't prove it, but it's what I strongly believe. Plastic leaves a taste or smell on anything it is in contact with. Take some store bought frozen fruit from the freezer, open and smell. Smells like plastic. :

[Dale Hatfield]

Wife and I were  making are rounds at wally world. When we come across a man with  so much stetson on that that i could smell him at the end of the row. We got to him and it took my breath away. Somewhere on the label it should read not to be used in place of a shower but after .Patchouli
oil stinks as well, we have a fair share of stink butt hippies at work that think that stuff is the cure.
Try the front row at church as a kid it was the worst. All the ol widow women  stank so bad. You get 5 or 6  of them ol gals over used  stink bad on . It could knock a kettle of hungry buzzards off a week old road kill  hog in texas.
Perfume and Laundry smells are the only ones that bug me. Any other chemical smell is fine

[Patty]

You have to wonder how those folks stand it themselves. Norm & I have had to leave a store because of the perfume some lady is wearing. We try to buy everything unscented just like the rest of you, but it is getting harder all the time. Why do manufacturers think we want to smell like peaches, or apples, or coconuts ?  :

[Bibbyman]

I've wanted to say something for a while now but thought I'd just get beat up on.  But I see I'm not alone in my suffering.

How do you tell a person that they are making themselves unpleasant to be around?  And what do you want to bet that they have our some of the people in their household have chronic breathing disorders and other ailments that, if not directly caused by, are affected by the over use of these products.

[Norm]

For me the older I've gotten the more sensitive I've become to chemical smells.


We don't use fabric softener or air fresheners in the house and the soaps we use are about as neutral as you can buy. The worst for me is the grocery store, some of these perfumes men and women wear could kill bugs! The laundry  aisle is hold your breath and buy only what we need and then make a run for it. Diesel fumes used to never bother me but now I get an instant headache if exposed too long.

Ahhh the joys of aging.  :D

[sprucebunny]

Patty, a lot of the shampoos were apricot scented, yuk.

It's gotten worse as I've got older. I'm also more sensitive to chemicals like fiberglass resin.

Along the same lines... do any of you who are sensitive to smells also find that many salad dressings and bottled oils taste rancid ? I've always thought they were inedible. Virgin olive, macademia and coconut oils keep pretty well, though.

[Patty]

I have pretty much given up bottled salad dressings, they just don't taste good at all to me. A local food market sells some good balsamic vinegar....that makes a pretty good vinaigrette when mixed with extra virgin olive oil . Norm makes an egg and safflower oil emulsification (turns into a mayonnaise type dressing) that is very good also. He adds sweet pickle relish to give it a Thousand Island dressing flavor.

We have gotten to the point where we buy very little processed food since it tastes so lousy and costs so much. He now bakes all of our bread that is to die for. I allow myself 1 slice every morning with  breakfast. 

[sawguy21]

My sniffer is pretty well shot, probably wrecked it being exposed to M.E.K., Jet B  and other nefarious chemicals. Still, some perfumes and aftershaves will send me scurrying for air as will acetone and cannabis. I hate that smell.

[SwampDonkey]

I've stopped buying salad dressings and pretty much stopped salads. About the only thing I kept out of the salad is peppers and onions, the rest is worthless nutrition wise. I steam cabbage with pepper and sometimes some broccoli, micro-nuke some squash, boil some cob corn, but I can't give up a good tater.  I get this Asian Zsechwan (fake) VH sauce with ginger in it that I like a table spoonful on the cabbage. ;) And like you (Norm and Patti), I can only take my own home made bread (no one but me here to make it ;) ). Bread you buy now is very expensive, over 4 bucks a loaf for multigrain and small loaves. Heck I can make 16 loaves of bread (my loaves are twice as big) from a 25 lb bag of flour for $12 with all the rest of the ingredients, can't be more than $30 total (including 5 lb bag of Whole Wheat flour) in 2 months.  My bread has 14 grains in it and use honey for sweetener.  8)

I don't react to any smells or odors, but some stuff is worst than skunk.

[Dale Hatfield]

Dont get me wrong. I use a dot or 2 of  stink purty. But the people that knock ya over  ,make ya run for cover , must  be using a gallon a month.

[ElectricAl]

Our whole family suffer harsh affects from the petroleum based fragrances and food additives. 

I'll have headaches for 3 days after going to the least smelly hardware store which is Menards. 
I won't go in Homedepot  or Lowes .

I hate to go to town so much I make a list of what is needed. The list just builds until something is needed right away. That's when I go.  This is not a shopping trip. I have a list and get what we need and get out.
I may get to town 1 or 2 times a month.
A couple times a year the list will be big enough it will take an hour to get every ones "Stuff" at Menards.
By the time I get out I can't see straight, my balance is off, and I make slow decisions while driving.
I'm a public hazard on the road.  And if it's dark out, it's a challenge to make the 15 mile drive.


Walmart and Target are the absolute worst offenders in toxic air. Just driving by is risky.
There is no way you'll ever find me in those stores. Never !


A couple years ago I agreed to attend a family event at a county park.
We had not gone to a family event in maybe 15 years because my parents and sisters smell like cheap dates to put it nice.
Anyway we provided all our own food because we don't trust the crap they eat.

We have a local locker processes a beef for us.
Anyway we brought our burgers and my aunt brought burger from Walmart.

I tell you with all honesty her burger smelled like the store.
The stink was so bad I could not smell the meat.