A hospital bed is the one place you can’t get up and leave. Yet the air there can carry staff perfume, scented soap, air fresheners and fragranced cleaners. This page covers the evidence and what to ask for at your next appointment or hospital stay.
Evidence key Strong Moderate Weak How we grade
Patients can’t walk away
A 2015 CMAJ editorial by two physicians argued that hospitals should adopt uniform scent-free policies, because patients — unlike employees — cannot request accommodation and can be involuntarily exposed to fragrance from staff, other patients or visitors. Moderate evidence. Flegel & Martin 2015
Some people stop going to the doctor because of it. Many people with chemical sensitivities delay or avoid medical care because clinics and hospitals are heavily scented; healthcare was named as one of the least accessible settings (31 of 60). Moderate evidence. Roy 2026
In a 1986 clinic and hospital survey of 60 asthma patients, 72% said perfume or cologne worsened their asthma, and two asthma patients who could not smell at all still reacted to perfume worn by others nearby. Moderate evidence. Shim & Williams 1986
More people want it fragrance-free than scented
In the US, the UK and Sweden, more people want scent-free health care than scented. About two-thirds (64.6%) of US adults did not know fragrance ingredients don't have to be listed on the label, and more than half would prefer fragrance-free workplaces (53.2% vs 19.7% against) and health care (54.8% vs 22.4%). Moderate evidence. Steinemann 2016 More UK adults prefer fragrance-free over fragranced workplaces (44.7% vs 23.3%), health care (43.3% vs 26.7%) and airplanes (61.9% vs 18.4%). Moderate evidence. Steinemann 2018 Swedes overwhelmingly prefer scent-free spaces: 80.2% vs 6.0% for airplanes, 77.7% vs 9.8% for hotels, and 64.1% vs 14.0% for health care. Moderate evidence. Steinemann 2018 (Sweden)
People with asthma back fragrance-free spaces by wide margins: 66.2% vs 16.1% for fragrance-free workplaces and 72.1% vs 14.8% for fragrance-free health care. Moderate evidence. Steinemann 2018
And it isn’t only people with symptoms asking. Support for fragrance-free health care and workplaces is not limited to people with symptoms: in Germany roughly 70% of those who backed them reported no fragrance-related health effects themselves. Moderate evidence. Klaschka 2020
A sign on the door isn’t a policy
A fragrance-free sign is not enough on its own: Canadians with chemical sensitivities described workplaces and hospitals with 'scent-free' policies where staff still wore scents and scented cleaners stayed in use. Moderate evidence. Roy 2026
Fragrance-free health-care policies should cover cleaning and laundry products, not just staff perfume; Canadian advocates ask for exactly this, and people who react name cleaning products as their most common trigger (50 of 60). Moderate evidence. ASEQ-EHAQ 2020; Roy 2026
Accreditation hasn’t forced the issue either. As of 2015, no Canadian hospital accreditation standard required a scent-free policy, and it was not policy in all Canadian hospitals. Moderate evidence. Flegel & Martin 2015
Fragrance can be in the medicine too
Benzyl alcohol, a fragrance allergen, is also a preservative in common prescription creams and injections, including steroid, antifungal (clotrimazole) and antibiotic (mupirocin) creams, so fragrance-allergic patients can meet it in their medicines. Moderate evidence. Jacob & Barron 2007
In Belgium, about 1 in 10 topical (skin-applied) pharmaceutical products — wound-healing ointments, NSAID gels, antiseptics, antihemorrhoidals, even corticosteroid-antibiotic creams — listed a fragrance ingredient, sometimes disclosed only as the single word "Perfume". Strong evidence. Nardelli 2009
What to ask for
Before an appointment
- Call ahead and say fragrance makes you sick. Ask them to note it in your record so you don’t have to explain it every visit.
- Ask for the first appointment of the day, before the waiting room fills up, or to wait outside or in your car until they call you.
- Ask for an exam room without an air freshener or diffuser, and for staff who see you to skip perfume and scented lotion that day.
- Ask whether they have a fragrance-free soap or hand sanitizer staff can use with you.
In the hospital
- Ask for your fragrance sensitivity to be noted in your chart, and ask how the staff caring for you will be told.
- Ask that your room be cleaned with fragrance-free products where possible and that no air fresheners go in it.
- Ask which of your own fragrance-free toiletries you can bring, and ask visitors to come unscented.
- Ask your doctor or pharmacist to check creams and injections for fragrance ingredients, such as benzyl alcohol, if you know you’re allergic.
Carry our wallet card so you can hand it over instead of explaining while you feel awful. If you need it in writing, the letter builder can draft a request to your doctor for a note, and our rights page covers what the law says.
If you run a clinic
Buy fragrance-free soap, sanitizer and cleaning products, unplug the air fresheners, and ask staff to come to work unscented. Our employer guide has a policy you can copy, and our signs are free to print.