10 years ago
Madkat, thanks so much for your signature.
We're not getting as much American involvement as we should, and perhaps it's because people think the petition is meant for EU citizens only. It isn't. The perfume industry is global and if Fragrantica is to be believed, there are 608 different houses in the US alone. The committee tasked with soliciting public opinion on this proposed legislation certainly could have confined their request for input to the EU, but they didn't. Instead, they asked for contributions from "any interested parties," which means anyone who uses perfume or is involved in its creation, distribution, promotion, etc., regardless of location. And I apologize if I'm repeating myself here, but I don't know how else to correct this misconception. Everyone who loves perfume and opposes reformulations and ingredient restrictions should sign the petition, no question.
Grey, I'm not certain if it's a good result thus far or not. I don't think anyone's ever done a tally of the online perfume community to ascertain how many hardcore fragrance lovers visit the Facebook groups, perfume blogs and the three big online perfume communities on a regular basis. I do know that we've gotten a huge amount of support from the bloggers and some of the niche perfumers. The perfume stores and retailers, however, have been disappointing. The good news is that even though the window for public submissions closes in Mid-May, it's my understanding that nothing will be voted upon until January 2015, so we'll continue to keep the petition open. Sorceress' idea to expand the pool of potential supporters to the general public by posting a petition on Change.org is an excellent one. The issue has appeal beyond the perfume community alone in that it involves governmental restrictions upon consumer freedom of choice. In order for that to work, however, the petition would have to be rewritten in such a way as to be understandable to non-perfume folk. That may be the next step in this process. Meanwhile, other avenues are being explored, so keep the faith.