Perfume Is Not a Substitute For Showering!

The French were leaders in the perfuming business some centuries back because they didn't bathe much. Even into the 1970s, Europeans had a reputation for bathing less often than Americans. This news report from Associated Press at Yahoo at first sounds like more nanny-statism:

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Those all-over body sprays that promise to turn teenage boys into babe magnets? Instead of attracting girls, they could be making them sick.

A Minnesota lawmaker proposed a bill Monday urging a fragrance-free educational campaign to discourage students from dousing themselves in scents that aggravate classmates with asthma and other health problems.

Odors that fill hallways come mostly from boys who douse themselves in body sprays like Axe, said Mikolai Altenberg, a senior at Minneapolis South High School. He said the smell is "indescribable" and unavoidable.

"You can smell it from 10 feet away," Altenberg said. "Mostly it's just guys who just think that putting Axe all over them is a substitute for showering."

Rep. Karen Clark, a Democrat, first proposed banning fragrances in Minneapolis schools, one of the state's largest school districts. The bill she introduced Monday scales that back to an awareness campaign in Minneapolis and in other districts that volunteer. The campaign could include letters to parents, fact sheets, signs in schools, e-mail and Web sites.

One in eight Minneapolis students has asthma, and school nurses have treated students for wheezing and headaches brought on by the fragrances wafting from classmates, said Mary Heiman, a nursing service manager who runs the district's asthma program.

I will say, an awareness campaign is far better than passing more laws on the matter. And while the Axe commercials don't actually suggest that it is a substitute for showering, they do suggest that spray this stuff on your body, and it'll knock the girls dead. Perhaps a bit more literally than the commercials intend.