A Detroit planning department employee is suing the city over a co-worker's perfume. The lawsuit, filed July 3 in the District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, claims plaintiff Susan McBride is extremely sensitive to perfumes and that her work environment violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

In the lawsuit, McBride asks for a “No Scent Policy” which would ban all perfumes and fragrances in the workplace, in addition to compensatory damages and damages for pain, suffering, humiliation and outrage.

McBride has worked for the planning department since 2000, but the perfume dilemma arose after an unidentified co-worker transferred into her department last year.

The complaint says McBride “suffers from a life-long severe chemical sensitivity to perfumes as well as any other scented substances,” and that the heavily-perfumed employee in question “not only wore a strong scent, but also plugged in a scented room deodorizer,” causing McBride to go home sick.

The employee removed the room deodorizer but refused to stop wearing perfume, according to the complaint. “As a direct result of her work exposure,” McBride has missed substantial time from work, says the suit, and the city's HR department did not address reasonable accommodation, instead suggesting McBride continue to take FMLA leaves. An October 2006 complaint McBride filed with the EEOC was dismissed in April.