According to the Canadian Human Rights Commission:

Individuals with environmental sensitivities experience a variety of adverse reactions to environmental agents at concentrations well below those that might affect the “average person”. This medical condition is a disability and those living with environmental sensitivities are entitled to the protection of the Canadian Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. The Canadian Human Rights Commission will receive any inquiry and process any complaint from any person who believes that he or she has been discriminated against because of an environmental sensitivity. Like others with a disability, those with environmental sensitivities are required by law to be accommodated.

For further information on environmental sensitivities, click on the following Commission publications:

- The Medical Perspective on Environmental Sensitivities
- Accommodation for Environmental Sensitivities: Legal Perspective

According to the Job Accommodation Network (JAN), a service of the Office of Disability Employment Policy of the U.S. Department of Labor:

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) does not contain a list of medical conditions that constitute disabilities. Instead, the ADA has a general definition of disability that each person must meet (EEOC, 1992). Therefore, some people with fragrance sensitivity will have a disability under the ADA and some will not.

A person has a disability if he/she has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a record of such an impairment, or is regarded as having such an impairment (EEOC, 1992).

For more information about how to determine whether a person has a disability under the ADA, visit: http://www.jan.wvu.edu/corner/vol02iss04.htm