so. there”s this weird thing that i see (mostly) in activist circles concerning scent-free spaces.

pretty much everything i read is about MCS. which great. whatever.

however, i do find it somewhat grating that many of these ppl don”t mention allergies. i get that allergies are a really common, mundane cause of scent sensitivity but… um. their just as valid as MCS? i promise you.

i guess one difference could be that allergies tend to be treatable using anti-histamines. so if you have an allergy attack triggered by a fragrance, you can just take one and you”ll be fine… eventually. so maybe this is why allergies factor so rarely into the discussion of scent-free spaces.

(i doubt it)

on my part, anti-histamines don”t do much for my fragrance allergies. given that my overall allergy profile is such that i need to take a non-drowsy 24hr pill everyday to manage them, and in the growing and harvest seasons i often need to supplement with the stronger drowsy medications, while also carrying my epipen everywhere, and using my prescription eye drops and nose spray, and doing yearround immunotherapy…

overall, despite all of the above, fragrance still triggers a reaction. the best ‘treatment” i”ve found is simply avoiding it.

and only in activists circles do ppl assume MCS when i also mention a need for scent-free spaces. then i still feel like the nerdy kid who got made fun of for being allergic to everything. bc allergies aren”t cool. pretty fucking mundane. and yet for those of us who have them, they can have a really big impact on our lives.

so. um. yeah. pls don”t forget about us.

(re: allergies and sharing spaces too… beyond scent-free, i do know ppl who are so allergic to cats that even being around someone with too much cat hair on their clothing can trigger a severe reaction. not once have i ever seen any discussion of stuff like this re: accessibility and activist space. same with deadly allergies. why isn”t it standard boilerplate language at this point to say that all scent-free spaces should also be peanut free?)