SCENTS OFF

This is an urgent request to film- and theater-goers: Please don’t wear perfume. Those of us with asthma plead for your cooperation.

Perfume, like tobacco smoke, can be a severe irritant for those of us with reactive airway disease or asthma. Lungs constrict, air passages narrow and it can become increasingly difficult to breathe. One in 20 people in the United State has asthma, and nearly 5,000 die of it each year.

There are many other Americans who may experience uncomfortable symptoms in the presence of perfume: 33 million with sinus problems, at least 50 million with allergies, 12 million with chronic bronchitis and 2 million with emphysema.

So for all of our sakes, please don’t wear perfume to films or to the theater--even though the perfume industry would like you to believe you are not fully dressed without it.

ESTHER SCHILLER

Newbury Park