Make sure to focus on the issue of scented products instead of focusing specifically on the perfume. I once had a coworker with a "perfume problem" and we were working in a Fragrance Free Zone. Turns out if was her scented soaps, lotions and laundry detergent to blame for the fragrant trail she left behind. If you only address the perfume you may be left to have the conversation again.

Canada is far more progressive with scent-free policies than is the US. That said, you'll find some model policies if you use "scent free policies" as a search argument. It took three years of steady attention to the issue but I have such a policy in place at my work now.

Many people, including asthmatics and migraine sufferers, are adversely affected by over-scented colleagues. Do your research, check out what the ADA offers, and contact your local government clean air office for information.

Good luck - clean air is worth the work.

This is a real problem. The root of it is that these perfumes and scented detergents etc. used SOLVENTS to make those smells. That's why so many people get sick from it. They are NOT made from ground-up flowers or nice things like that. They ARE toxic. It's like rubbing paint thinner on your skin since the perfume ingredients use solvents. If people knew , they wouldn't even use scented products, and they'd buy the unscented detergents, etc. This is the next big thing---it used to be cigarette smoke. Now people need to learn that those scents they wear (yes, even if you bought it at Nordstrom) are literally toxic.

My advice: get another job.

That fact that the manager won't do jack tells me a lot. First, that he or she has no sense of smell. Second, that he or she has no sense of professionalism since no manager worth his or her salt wants and employee who's a mobile mustard gas lab working for them.

If you've got a manager lacking professionalism like that, that tells me you're in a a toxic environment (not just toxic chemical oder).

So you can reasonably bet that HR will also, ahem, decline to do anything about it. And you can bet that in their secret files on you, they're going to tag YOU as the problem.

And certain talking with Mustard Gas Mary there yourself isn't going to do anything but piss her off and make her defensive.

So, at the end of this exercise, your fighting for your own piece of the clean air act is likely going to land you on the wrong side of a manager (already done), HR, and the woman that's causing the problem.

Just get out of there and find a new job. Those folks all deserve one another.