How to Find an Ambient Scenting Program Safe for Fragrance Allergies
How to Find an Ambient Scenting Program Safe for Fragrance Allergies
Allergy friendliness is important to you. You may have employees with fragrance sensitivities, visitors affected by common allergens, or sensitive animals to look out for. Whatever the case, these sensitivities make it important to you that the products you’re buying won’t cause allergic reactions, but you still want your facility to smell pleasant and odor-free. How can your facility find an ambient scenting program compatible with fragrance sensitivities?
At State Chemical, we manufacture and distribute biological and chemical solutions for various applications, including ambient scenting. It’s great to find the answer to your odor problems, but it’s a bit trickier when allergens are a subject of concern, and we know this can add a layer of stress to the buying process.
To help you make an informed purchase, we will explain fragrance allergies, what "allergen-free" means, how to find ambient scenting programs safe for fragrance sensitivities, and how an allergy-friendly ambient scenting program could look in your facility. After reading, you’ll know how to find an ambient scenting program that won’t trigger allergic reactions.
What are Fragrance Allergies?
Fragrance allergies occur when someone has a sensitivity to a fragrance ingredient. When they are exposed to this ingredient, it will cause allergic contact dermatitis, meaning that their skin will become red, itchy, blistered, swollen, and may burn or sting. Fragrance allergies have also been known to lead to eye irritation, congestion, headaches, and even breathing difficulties.
Allergies are more serious than sensitivities, but both can cause uncomfortable and distressing results.
Fragrance allergies impact about 1% of adults and 1.8% of children and adolescents, and they can cause serious pain and discomfort to affected individuals. When considering an ambient scenting program for your facility, it’s important to choose a safe option for every visitor.
What Does “Allergen-Free” Mean for Ambient Scenting Programs?
If someone has a fragrance allergy, it doesn’t mean they’re allergic to all fragrances—just ones that contain ingredients recognized as allergens. When you find a fragranced product that claims to be allergen-free, you’re looking at a product that smells nice without containing ingredients known to trigger fragrance allergies for those affected.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t make it impossible for allergen-free fragrances to cause allergic reactions. However, the ingredients in these fragrances have not yet been identified to cause an allergic reaction, so the chances of one occurring are incredibly slim.
Some facilities prefer to use fragrance-free products to fully eliminate the chance of reactions, and this is an option too. But choosing a product that contains no known allergens means you can still cover up odors and add an ambience to your space without negatively affecting sensitive staff or visitors.
If you want to control odors in your facility but don’t want to risk harming visitors with allergies, look for allergen-free products.
How to Find a Safe Ambient Scenting Program for Fragrance Sensitivities
When considering scent solutions, look online and call manufacturers to verify whether products contain known allergens. You will likely yield success if you specifically search for allergy-friendly programs and verify information with the manufacturer.
By taking the time to conduct extra research, you can find safer ambient scenting options for your facility. But to ensure this is the case, it’s important to understand certain details.
The primary way to determine whether your intended fragrance contains allergens is by reviewing cosmetic allergen regulations.
The European Union (EU) has commission regulations that determine which ingredients are classified as cosmetic allergens. These regulations are regularly updated anytime new ingredients are recognized as allergens, the latest version being the EU Cosmetic Regulation 2023/1545. Currently, there are over 80 known fragrance allergens on this list.
It’s important to realize that U.S.-based manufacturers are not mandated to follow these regulations (as opposed to International Fragrance Association [IFRA] guidelines, which IFRA-member companies are required to follow). However, these EU cosmetic regulations were adopted in certain product categories as part of SB-258 Right to Know regulations in California.
This means that manufacturers and distributors in California are required to follow these regulations, but this is not necessarily the case in the rest of the country. Therefore, you’ll need to specifically seek out EU-compliant products to ensure that what you’re buying contains no known allergens.
Those with allergies know that keeping their environment safe is a game of constant education and information verification. To get your facility on an allergy-friendly ambient scenting program, you’ll need to adopt this same mentality.
The Result of an Allergy-Friendly Ambient Scenting Program in Your Facility
Allergen-free products can drastically change people’s experience with your facility. Individuals with fragrance allergies and sensitivities will have difficulty staying in your building if it causes an allergic reaction. If their allergies are bad enough, their health could be jeopardized if they stay in your space.
But even milder reactions will be distressing and make them unlikely to return. Plus, you could potentially lose good employees if they’re constantly forced to work with fragrances that cause flare-ups.
Meanwhile, if you foster a safe environment for those affected by allergies, your facility will be seen in a more positive light. The absence of allergic reactions paints your facility as a safe, comfortable space for those with fragrance sensitivities—and the remaining clean smell will make every visitor view the facility as cleaner.
Fragrances containing no known allergens are available in some capacity in most ambient scenting programs. When you invest in the safety of your facility users, you’ll be seen as more trustworthy and professional.
Learn About State Chemical Fragrance Systems
Allergy friendliness is important to you, but it isn’t always clear what “allergen-free” means or what’s really safe. Now that you know how to find a compliant ambient scenting program, watch the video below to learn about State Chemical’s fragrance systems, which each offer fragrances that contain no known allergens.