chemical sensitivities

Avis is 32 and suffers from multiple chemical sensitivities and yet enjoys a social smoke and drink and is furious that people with a peculiar sensitivity to cigarette smoke hold so much sway in government circles that pub and club life must now revolve around them.

"I cannot visit a hairdresser or a beauty salon because of my chemical sensitivities," says Avis, "and you don't see me and others like me demanding all perfumes be removed from these establishments just because I believe I have a right to a non-perfumed environment."

"I have to buy special cosmetics and get a friend to cut my hair," says Avis, "and I had to change my job a while back because one of my co-workers refused to stop wearing a particularly strong perfume that made my eyes water and my nose run all day."

"I didn't want to cause a fuss -- and the job wasn't that wonderful," laughs Avis, "but that's the sort of adaptation I have to make in order to co-exist with people. And I'm not alone. There are thousands of people like me who just opt not to go places or do things that are health risks."

"Why do people sensitive to cigarette smoke demand that the world must revolve around them rather than accepting the sort of limitations I do?"

"It's not just perfume I have trouble with, it's cleaning fluids and petroleum products generally," explains Avis. "I'm OK on a train or plane, but I can't get in a car or a bus without feeling nauseous within seconds."

"I walk or cycle everywhere rather than drive and it's a real pain sometimes but people like me just have to do these things in order to survive."

"I have no cleaning fluids in my place -- I just use baking powder and vinegar for the big jobs and plain water for everything else," explains Avis. "And as for paint -- well -- I literally pass out if I get a whiff of it!"

"I can't understand why I can tolerate cigarette smoke -- and enjoy having a smoke myself -- and ye tall of these other things upset me."

"Sure, I have plenty of compassion for people who are sensitive to cigarette smoke -- I know what it's like to get sick from products that other people use -- but I fail to see why they should be able to dictate to others what they can and cannot do."

"Why would a person sensitive to cigarette smoke want to work in a pub or bar to start off with?" asks Avis. "It's as ridiculous as my wanting to work in a hospital, a garage or a beauty salon where I would be exposed to all the sorts of chemicals that upset me."

"All this talk about 'rights' has got totally out of hand," says Avis. "Some people -- people like myself -- are just physically unable to enjoy all of the rights and freedoms that other people enjoy. It's a fact of life and you just can't have the weaker elements in society dictating to the strong."

"Sure, changes can be made to make life a little more bearable for 'impaired' people like myself --there's no big deal about wheelchair ramps and similar modifications for the blind and hearing impaired -- but when changes are made that destroy the enjoyment of life of non-afflicted people it is absolutely ridiculous, totally insane."

"Take the smoking ban in pubs and bars," says Avis. "These are places where people go to enjoy themselves -- to get drunk, smoke their heads off and take all manner of other drugs, too."

"These are not the sort of places where the faint-hearted go -- or people sensitive to smoke -- so why change pub and club culture just to ensure the 'rights' of people who, in my opinion, have no right to be working in such places or visiting them in the first place?"

"Without the usual fug of cigarette smoke my local pub does not have the same atmosphere," sighs Avis. "It's no longer a fun place. It's sterile. It's like a beauty salon without perfume, a garage without gasoline and a hospital without disinfectant."

"Sure, the prime business of pubs and clubs is selling alcohol, but having a drink and having a smoke go hand in hand for the majority of pub patrons," explains Avis. "If we talk about rights, what about the rights of smokers?"

"Are the rights of the majority -- the pub smokers -- less important than minority rights of cigarette smoke sensitives?"

"I don't believe my minority rights to a chemical-free environment are more important than the majority's right to use vehicles, perfume, cleaning fluids and other stuff that upsets me," says Avis. "That's how democracy works, isn't it?"

"Since when have minorities ruled?"