Parent shares why schools should be fragrance-free
Guest Column by Dr. Venkatesh Mysore
OCTOBER 19, 2026
If your district subscribes to the California School Boards Association’s policy service, you have very likely adopted Administrative Regulation 3514, Environmental Safety. Its indoor air quality section asks staff and students to refrain from bringing scented candles, incense or air fresheners, and from using perfume, cologne, scented lotion, hair spray or other personal care products that are not fragrance-free in classrooms, school buses or other enclosed areas. The same regulation directs that low-emission cleaning products be used whenever possible, and that aerosols including air fresheners be avoided to the extent possible.
Many of the Regulation 3514 recommendations have been commendably implemented by school districts, but the fragrance and cleaning-product provisions appear to be the hardest to implement and enforce.
Both the medical system and entire governments are now moving on this. As of July 31, 2026, the European Union requires cosmetics sold there to name around 80 fragrance allergens individually rather than collapsing them into the single word “fragrance.” Canada’s equivalent rule took effect the same week. The federal rule that would do the same here was due from the FDA in June 2024 but has not been issued. In June 2025 the American Medical Association adopted its first policy on fragrance, encouraging health care facilities, government agencies and nonprofit organizations to adopt fragrance-free policies.
In 2014 the California Department of Public Health published the Healthy Cleaning & Asthma-Safer Schools: A How-To Guide, developed with 13 California districts including San Francisco, Alameda, Livermore Valley Joint and Los Angeles. It directs districts to purchase only third-party certified “green” products, and contains a section titled “Avoid Products with Fragrances.” Fragrance is not behind the broader rise in childhood asthma, but it remains a documented trigger. CDPH’s Work-Related Asthma Prevention Program reports over 350 documented California cases of work-related asthma associated with fragranced products, roughly a quarter of them new-onset, in workers with no prior history.
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The American Academy of Dermatology’s journal reports that fragrances are among the most common allergens for children, whether or not they have eczema. The American Migraine Foundation lists perfume among the top migraine triggers. The AMA also recognizes that some environmental exposures may substantially limit major life activities for people with fragrance sensitivity and related disorders. Michigan is an example of a state that has responded, with its Department of Education publishing a sample fragrance-aware school protocol that names multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS), describing reactions that range from debilitating to life-threatening.
No district can implement an entire board policy overnight, but declaring your intent and your progress publicly lets teachers and families know where you stand. A preliminary effort to locate California districts that had posted a fragrance-free policy on their websites surfaced only two: San Lorenzo Valley Unified, which noted that some community members were highly allergic to fragrances, and Fresno Unified, which in 2019 asked students and staff to go fragrance-free and ran a campaign of posters and classroom discussion.
Three things are simple enough to answer yes or no. Have fragrance-free certifications such as Green Seal GS-37 been communicated to your vendors? Have air fresheners been discontinued? Has your staff had any training on this? NIOSH reports that districts making the switch saved money or paid about the same, and CDPH publishes a downloadable model policy you can adapt.
Personal products in locker rooms are the hardest case, and enforcement may be impractical given privacy concerns. The PE locker room concentrates students in a space with minimal ventilation at the very place where aerosol deodorants and body sprays are most likely to be overused. A handful of schools in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Minnesota enforce restrictions strictly, almost always after a specific student or staff member developed a severe reaction.
Punishment may work, but a greater success rate might come from education about the health consequences to oneself, and awareness of the effect on others. Peanut allergy accommodation within friend groups is a promising precedent, and it works without adults enforcing much. Schools could work with students on alternatives suited to different parts of the campus, and a student task force would give them a platform to raise these issues.
There is a natural inertia to wait for someone to raise fragrance as a health issue on your school premises before spending energy on it. My daughter developed a sensitivity to artificial fragrances after a single exposure to a strong body spray in her school locker room, and her sensitivity has not improved in the past year. School leaders are in a position to implement the model policy before there is anything to respond to.
Dr. Venkatesh Mysore is a parent in the East Bay and a computational drug discovery researcher.