Fragrance Free Schools? Axe Might Get The Axe In Minnesota

Legislating personal hygiene?
A Minnesota legislator is suggesting just that.

A Minnesota lawmaker proposed a bill Monday urging a fragrance-free educational campaign to discourage students from dousing themselves in scents that aggravate classmates with asthma and other health problems.

Odors that fill hallways come mostly from boys who douse themselves in body sprays like Axe, said Mikolai Altenberg, a senior at Minneapolis South High School. He said the smell is "indescribable" and unavoidable.

"You can smell it from 10 feet away," Altenberg said. "Mostly it's just guys who just think that putting Axe all over them is a substitute for showering."

Rep. Karen Clark, a Democrat, first proposed banning fragrances in Minneapolis schools, one of the state's largest school districts. The bill she introduced Monday scales that back to an awareness campaign in Minneapolis and in other districts that volunteer. The campaign could include letters to parents, fact sheets, signs in schools, e-mail and Web sites.

Do these high schools really want teens to ban the "Axe" and go "au natural"?
(Just don't go near them after gym class.)
To show you how old I am, the guys choice "back in the day" was "Old Spice" or "Canoe".
and the girls wore musk oil or patchouli.... But I digress....

Apparently it's a problem for some kids who have allergies to fragrances... seems I recall a similar problem in the workplace...

but really now...
I can't imagine high school teens all awash in their "peer group thing" allowing themselves to be told what to smell like, especially by the state legislature.
Apparently this legislator has no greater priorities from her constituents.
And yeah, yeah, yeah... I know the allergy thing can be a problem... but should we legislate this type of thing? and why is it a whole population has to change their ways to accommodate one or two people? I mean, maybe the kids can be asked to "tone it down" with the after shave and stuff, but to outright ban it?

I smell a teen revolution coming on over this one.
Personally, I think most school buildings need a good "airing out" anyway.

Yet another reason to homeschool.

Update:
Read more here - and perhaps a different opinion from a blogger at Advanceweb for managers of respiratory care.