UK readers may like to click on this link to listen to the latest podcast of BBC Radio 4’s You & Yours. About 27 minutes into the episode you’ll find a report focussing on the regulation of ingredients in the perfume industry; the interviewees include Roja Dova and Linda Pilkington of Ormonde Jayne.
Whilst fragrance afficionados may not learn anything new from the podcast, it is interesting – perhaps even encouraging? – that a mainstream context like Radio 4 has decided to highlight the current state of perfumery in one of its flagship programmes. Some of the statements in the report are questionable, such as the assertion that IFRA is responsible for the ban on certain raw materials (check out this post from Andy Tauer for an illuminating explanation of where the regulatory power really lies). It’s also worth noting that whilst the speakers in the report acknowledge that certain classics have had to be reformulated over the years, they maintain that these changes are almost impossible to discern by consumers (I can hear all of you laughing with derision right now). And I was personally very pleased to hear more people express concern about the weird logic that allows potentially lethal peanuts to be sold with a simple health warning, but forbids a customer from making a personal choice about buying a product containing an ‘excess’ of oakmoss, which may cause little more than a rash.
A 10-minute report on You & Yours may not change the world, but it does offer welcome evidence of a growing awareness of what many consider to be an increasingly important problem.
Persolaise.
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Hear hear! Time to kick up a fuss about the idiotic regulations which work in favour of consistent symthetic materials and come down hard and cruel on rose, oakmoss and citrus fruit.
Sarah, it's sad to think that the situation hasn't improved since the above was posted, more than two years ago. I just wonder where it's all going to end.