Breathing Easy – Aspiring to be scent-free (except plant-based scents!)

Many of our guests and staff experience sensitivities to chemicals that are found in many items used in everyday life. These include laundry soaps, dryer sheets, cleaning products, personal care products and perfumes.  Symptoms of sensitivities can include wheezing, difficulty breathing, a sense of heaviness in the chest, a feeling of panic, scratchy throat and nose, itchy, watering eyes, fatigue and more.

While removing oneself from exposure to such products can help to reduce the symptoms, exposure can often increase a person’s likelihood of catching a cold and other respiratory problems, such as asthma.

For this reason, Cabot Shores is aspiring to be a scent-free environment.  What exactly do we mean by scent-free?  The scents that are potentially harmful are those that are synthetically produced.  We are not talking about plant-based scents, such as essential oils made from plants like lavender, mint, eucalyptus and others which are soothing and restorative to the respiratory system. However, a word of caution: Many personal care products advertise that they contain essential oils but in addition also contain synthetic scents, so it’s important to read the ingredient labels of personal care products, soaps, detergents etc.

Reading labels is a must when aspiring to become scent-free. But labels can be confusing. So many ingredients listed that may mean nothing to us. So here is a simple rule of thumb: If you can’t pronounce an ingredient it is likely to be a synthetic ingredient; so the product does not qualify as scent-free (this is not a hard and fast rule, but it’s a place to start).  Any ingredient listed as “fragrance” is also likely to be synthetic.  You can also check: www.greenamericatoday.org for more information for more specific information on Body Care Toxins.

At Cabot Shores, we use non-toxic, scent-free or plant-based cleaning products, ask our staff to use only scent-free personal care products and to refrain from using perfume.

When visiting Cabot Shores, for the health and well-being of all, please refrain from using scented products and perfumes – we will all be breathing easy.