Non-Scents in the Workplace?

So, which major U.S. city would you expect to ban municipal employees from wearing perfume, cologne, aftershave, and even deodorant to work? If you picked the Motor City, you are - ironically - absolutely right.

In 2008, a Detroit city planner filed a lawsuit claiming a co-worker’s perfume made it challenging for her to do her job. Susan McBride filed her lawsuit under the American with Disabilities Act, and was awarded $100,000. The civil suit sparked the city of Detroit to make it official. A notice will go into the new employee handbook and be written in the Americans with Disabilities Act training, along with warning placards throughout the three buildings, which include the Cadillac Square Building, Coleman A. Young Municipal Center and First National Building, asking employees to “refrain from wearing scented products.” The ban will also include scented candles, lotions, perfume samples from magazines, and spray or solid air fresheners.

“One of the things the city is going to have to figure out is how they enforce the policy they’ve agreed to,” said attorney John Holmquist. “The city is going to have to get involved in hygiene, I’d guess you’d say, which no employer wants to get involved in.”

Detroit appears to be the only major city - not only in the U.S. but on the entire North American continent - to enact such a ban. In the past, two Canadian cities - Halifax and Ottawa - have flirted with scent restrictions, but neither ever gained any traction.

Detroit’s decision to ban employees from using any scented products in the workplace has sparked an national controversy about how far is too far. With summer on the way, it seems likely that Detroit might at the very least need to re-think their inclusion of “deodorant” on the fragrance hit list.