Planning an Accessible Meeting or Event for People with
Environmental Sensitivities or Intolerances
A meeting space should be fragrance, smoke, and pesticide-free.
It should be as free as possible of non-essential electronic and radio
frequencies.
Events should be advertised and posted as fragrance, smoke, and
pesticide-free. Designated areas should be reserved as fluorescent and cell
phone free upon request.
Promulgate a fragrance-free, accessible meeting policy. Advise all
attendees including personal assistants, interpreters, and IT personnel as
well as hotel staff of the meeting, event or conference’s fragrance-free
policy. Ask that all attendees and staff refrain from wearing or using
fragrances and scented personal care products for the health and comfort
of all attendees. Include the fragrance-free meeting policy in any contract
for services.
The venue or conference center must be a nonsmoking, never smoking
facility. Smoking should be prohibited in the building and within at least 25
feet of entrances.
Do not use combustion sources: no candles, sterno gel, fireworks, etc.
Do not use fresh flowers, including at buffet meals and in dining areas.
All events, dining facilities, guest rooms, common areas, and grounds
should be free of conventional pesticides. Know the pest control and lawn
care maintenance practices of the facilities so that this information is
readily available to those who need it or in the event of an emergency.
Avoid facilities that routinely exterminate the meeting space, dining and
kitchen areas, and guest rooms with conventional pesticides. Avoid facilities
that use conventional landscaping pesticides. If you contract with a facility
that uses conventional pesticides, ensure that no applications will take
place within a substantial period of time—at least several months--of your
meeting. The name(s) of the pesticide(s) used; the trade and chemical
name; the Material Safety Data Sheet(s); and the last date of application
should be made available to those who need this information.
Contractual language should prohibit any structural or landscaping
pesticide applications for a specific period of time prior to and during the
meeting.
An accessible meeting space should not be new, recently remodeled, or
have ongoing renovations: no recent or ongoing carpet or flooring
installation, furnishings including bedding in guest rooms, painting, or wall
covering; no recent or ongoing roofing, asphalting. Contractual language
should prohibit remodeling or renovations for a period of time prior to and
during the meeting. (See Creating an Accessible Indoor Environment, Mary
Lamielle, National Center for Environmental Health Strategies)
An accessible meeting space is mold-free. When evaluating potential
venues, ask for a description of water damage from leaks or recent storms
and what mitigation measures were taken. Consider testing to confirm the
space is mold-free prior to signing a contract.
Select a meeting space or floor that has windows that open to the outside,
a balcony, or is easily accessible to the outdoors. These may be important
design considerations for people with environmental sensitivities.
Select a meeting space without decorative fountains or water features, or
swimming pools. Chlorine used in decorative water features and swimming
pools can make a venue inaccessible. If decorative fountains or water
features are present, halt the use of disinfectants for a period of time
before the event. (Pools that are isolated from the meeting area and most
guest floors or otherwise separately ventilated may be less problematic.)
Select a meeting space that does not permit pets. Venues that permit pets
may pose a greater problem for attendees with allergies and for those
disabled by pesticides and other environmental exposures. Pets are more
likely to have residue from pesticide treatments for fleas and from
fragranced grooming products. Hotels and venues that permit pets may be
more likely to use conventional pesticides and more toxic cleaning agents
to maintain pet friendly facilities.
In evaluating and selecting a prospective venue, measure (using a gauss
meter and radio frequency meter) conference areas and guestrooms for
potentially high electromagnetic fields (EMFs)/radiofrequency (RF)
exposures.
Protocol for ensuring the lobby, conference area, restrooms, guest
rooms, and paths of travel are accessible:
Remove batteries or otherwise disengage all fragrance emission
devices; remove any urinal or toilet block air fresheners or deodorizers;
remove all aerosol or plug-in air fresheners, deodorizers, and disinfectants;
restrict the use of incense, potpourri, candles, reed diffusers, scented hand
soaps, sanitizers, lotions, and similar products. (See CDC Indoor
Environmental Quality Policy, CDC-SM 2009-01, 06.22.2009, pages 9-10)
Direct conference staff to remove fragranced and antimicrobial liquid soaps
and fragranced hand sanitizers and substitute fragrance-free products.
(Some attendees may require removal of alcohol-based hand sanitizers.)
Provide paper towels for guests for whom electronic hand dry-blowers are
inaccessible.
Refrain from using aerosols and toxic cleaning agents such as furniture or
metal polish, floor wax, or window cleaners before or during an event.
Damp wipe and dust with unscented microfiber cloths.
Use least toxic/allergenic cleaning agents: no chlorine, phenol, alcohol,
citrus or pine-based cleaning agents; no scented or fragranced cleaning
agents; no disinfectants.
Do not shampoo carpeting immediately before an event.
Provide fragrance-free soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and linens in
guests’ rooms.
Protocol to ensure access for people with electrical sensitivities:
Provide a “map” of conference area layout pointing out sources of EMF/WiFi emissions such as lighting and ventilation control panels, location of WiFi routers, electronic technology used in power-point presentations, making
recordings, etc. so that impacted individual can identify less problematic
areas.
Turn off any non-essential cell phones, smart phones, and Wi-Fi to
minimize exposing attendees to electromagnetic fields and radiofrequency
emissions.
Provide choice of accessible guestrooms that are Wi-Fi-free. Be prepared to
replace compact fluorescent lights with incandescent lightbulbs for guests.
Provide hard-wired, landline telephones at the meeting site for attendees
for whom cell phones, smart phones, and computers are not accessible.
Designate one discrete wall or zone for all attendees to recharge their
batteries and computers.
Some attendees may need a space with no fluorescent or compact
fluorescent lights. Be prepared to turn off a bank of fluorescent lights and
have on hand floor or table lamps with incandescent lightbulbs.
Avoid flashing lights, strobe lights, surround sound, fireworks, theatrical
smoke or fog, and similar loud, visually challenging, or significant air
pollutants in conference presentations, event entertainment, sponsor
displays, and similar activities.
Presentations:
Provide felt tip markers free of scents and solvents; ask presenters to
replace cap when not in use.
Instruct presenters who use lasers to point only, to resist wiggling the light
around the screen, and to turn off when not in use.
Instruct presenters to turn off non-essential computers, projectors,
microphones, wireless microphones, and other electronic equipment when
not in use. (Some individuals may need to avoid wireless microphones.)
Attendees:
Attendees should avoid wearing or using fragrances and scented personal
care products including perfumes and colognes; hand and body soaps;
body sprays; aftershave; shampoo, conditioner, gels, hair spray and other
hair care products; hand and body lotions; scented deodorant; scented
detergents, fabric softener, and dryer sheet, and similar fragranced or
scented personal care products.
Air well recently dry cleaned clothing.
Attendees should turn off any non-essential cell phones, smart phones, and
Wi-Fi to minimize electromagnetic fields and radiofrequency emissions.
Flash photography should be preceded with an announcement to those in
the immediate area.
Request that attendees not wear flashing shoes in the common conference
area.
Request that service dogs not be treated with pesticides for fleas or
groomed using fragranced products right before the conference.
@2015 Mary Lamielle
Thanks to Susan Molloy for her valuable contributions.
For additional information, please contact:
Mary Lamielle, Executive Director
National Center for Environmental Health Strategies, Inc.
1100 Rural Avenue, Voorhees, New Jersey 08043
(856)429-5358; (856)816-8820
marylamielle@ncehs.org