Perfume and Diesel Fumes

* Re “Smog Curbs Ordered on Home Products,” Oct. 29: I would like to add perfumes to the list of targets the state Air Resources Board is going after in an effort “to reduce the amount of fumes that waft into California’s air.” On Oct. 29, I was standing in line at the market behind a woman who reeked of a sickeningly sweet scent. When I got into my car 10 minutes later, the smell was still with me. By the time I got home, the entire car stank. The odor followed me into the elevator and into my condo.

My wife, joking of course, said, “Who’s the other woman?” I said, “If I knew, you can be sure she’d hear from me.”

Before I could get to my computer to write this letter, I had to shower and change my clothes. I hate to think of what my silent assailant and the millions like her, who blithely assault us with their perfume baths, are doing to our atmosphere.

DAN CHASMAN

Laguna Woods

* I’d be a lot more sympathetic to the Air Resources Board and the new household product rules if the board would also initiate real rules for the diesel engine crowd. To eliminate 54 tons of pollutants a day for consumer products seems like they are doing a lot (and I question the number) but is less than a speck in the eye compared to the huge volume of crud spewed out by diesels daily.

I suppose it is just too easy for our fearless regulators to browbeat housewives in order to look good and justify their existence. But the people are not fooled. After all, whom do you want to be following on the freeway, four guys spritzing their windshields or four diesel trucks?

ROGER WALTON

North Hills