Plea for people to not use scents

Dear Editor:

I would like to use your paper to address a problem about scent free buildings or may I say are supposed to be scent free. Before I get into the problem I would like to give your readers a brief history on our son. He has severe asthma, which on two occasions has caused his heart to stop and to be put on life support at Central Newfoundland Regional Health Care Center, Grand Falls-Windsor and the Janeway, St. John's where he spent nine days on life support, with us being informed that they felt that he might not make it. We were devastated to say the least and we spent a very long nine days scared that we would have to come home without him. He has allergies that cause his asthma to get worse, one of the worst being scents so back to my problem.

When we went to Lewisporte Academy for the spring concert all I could smell was a strong smell of perfume, aftershave or a combination of both. We stayed only for his group to sing and we left, but unfortunately that was too long. His asthma started to close off his tubes and today (Saturday, May 24) I am still giving him steroids and inhalers to try and keep him out of the hospital.

I want to know why people cannot respect the no scents allowed signs that are posted everywhere. This makes me so angry and I wonder if it was a child with a problem that they could see if they would act differently. Those people - and I am not referring to everyone who attended the concert - but they will know who I am talking about when they read this letter. Our son could die due to the fact that they did not obey the rules of there being no scents allowed.

There is also a rule of no peanuts allowed due to the fact that there are children in school who are allergic to peanuts. I do not know how everyone else would react to this rule, but I would never send my children to school with food that has a possibility of containing peanuts.

So I am asking people to please follow the rules and not wear scents into any public buildings. You could save my son's life or the life of another child. Think of this as if it was your son, daughter or grandchild. Would you not want everyone to do his or her part to help? Please remember if you are going to a public building do not wear scents.

Thanks to Ms. P. Coish, principle at Lewisporte Academy for reminding everyone at the concert to not wear scents and to the teachers who opened windows and doors to try and get fresh air into the school to try and help Austin.

Thank you,

Judy Brenson

Lewisporte