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Tools of the Trade / Least Irritating Smoke / Fog / Haze products on the market?
« on: Jun 06, 2012, 07:06 pm »
Hi Folks - been a while since I've been on the forum, but I do have a question that I thought you might be able to help me tackle.
I have multiple chemical sensitivity. For me, I have a respiratory reaction when I come in contact with many products including anything containing fragrance, anything propelled by aerosol, and harsh cleaning agents. This makes working in a theatre (and something just living in general) difficult!
I've found ways to deal with it on most occasions: avoid dressing rooms, wearing a respirator when working backstage on shows that use smoke / fog / haze (Communication can be difficult. There are many Darth Vader jokes.), using dry ice as an effect instead.
There is little that medication can do to help me control symptoms (continuous coughing, raw throat, tightness in chest, eyes itching, headache, general moodiness) and even the respirator doesn't block out all of the smoke / fog / haze.
I am looking at working another season as Production Stage Manager at the theatre I've worked at for the past three years and it is becoming important for the director to be able to use smoke / fog / haze for a show for artistic reasons. It's important for me that I'm not trying to call a show with a respirator on, and even if we sealed off the booth, I'd be trapped there for the duration of the show and unable to assist in an emergency.
So, what this brings me to is testing a variety of smoke / fog / haze products to find the most hypo-allergenic one on the market so that I hopefully won't react to it (besides plain old dry ice). Does anyone have any experience with any other sensitive person and had any positive results? I would love to find a product that I don't react to! It would greatly open up my employment possibilities, as this sensitivity constantly causes me to ask if I should be continuing to pursue my career as a stage manager.
I have multiple chemical sensitivity. For me, I have a respiratory reaction when I come in contact with many products including anything containing fragrance, anything propelled by aerosol, and harsh cleaning agents. This makes working in a theatre (and something just living in general) difficult!
I've found ways to deal with it on most occasions: avoid dressing rooms, wearing a respirator when working backstage on shows that use smoke / fog / haze (Communication can be difficult. There are many Darth Vader jokes.), using dry ice as an effect instead.
There is little that medication can do to help me control symptoms (continuous coughing, raw throat, tightness in chest, eyes itching, headache, general moodiness) and even the respirator doesn't block out all of the smoke / fog / haze.
I am looking at working another season as Production Stage Manager at the theatre I've worked at for the past three years and it is becoming important for the director to be able to use smoke / fog / haze for a show for artistic reasons. It's important for me that I'm not trying to call a show with a respirator on, and even if we sealed off the booth, I'd be trapped there for the duration of the show and unable to assist in an emergency.
So, what this brings me to is testing a variety of smoke / fog / haze products to find the most hypo-allergenic one on the market so that I hopefully won't react to it (besides plain old dry ice). Does anyone have any experience with any other sensitive person and had any positive results? I would love to find a product that I don't react to! It would greatly open up my employment possibilities, as this sensitivity constantly causes me to ask if I should be continuing to pursue my career as a stage manager.