Migraine

For those of you aren't aware of it, Megan Oltman has joined HealthCentral as an "expert." She will be writing SharePosts on topics related to legal issues we face. I KNOW many of you are going to especially love this one...

It happens to Migraineurs again and again - we go to work and the people around us wear perfumes or strong scented deodorants or lotions or aftershaves. Their scents trigger Migraines, and we can't work. We have to go home, use our sick leave, maybe our pay is docked. Our work performance suffers, our budget suffers. If we complain to our employer, we are often told to put up with it. Or we are told that the employer cannot restrict the other worker's freedom to wear the scents, or we're told to be a team player and not make waves. This issue has been raised here on My Migraine Connection dozens of times. The great news is that there is a recent Federal case which makes it clear that employers can indeed, and in fact must, restrict employees from wearing perfume if it impacts your health and makes it impossible for you to work!

Recently Miles posted this question in the Q & A section of the site:

"Need women at work to quit wearing perfume: Perfume is a horrible migraine trigger for me. The women in the office where I work wear it all the time -- lots of it. Talked to my boss. He said "live with it," but gets ticked when I get a migraine. Isn't there some kind of law about workplaces that should protect me?"

Continue reading Migraines, Perfume, and the Americans with Disabilities Act