On a recent impromptu day trip to Atlantic City, we decided to stop at the Borgata Casino and Hotel to walk around, eat at the buffet and perhaps play a few games. I am not much of a gambler, but I had been to the Borgata before in previous years and really enjoyed the atmosphere. So I thought it would be a good idea to stop in and walk around. I was feeling rested, happy and ready to explore.

Within thirty seconds of walking down the retail hall from the garage entrance I noticed a strange artificial smell. I became spacey, lightheaded and short of breath immediately upon arrival. Along with that I had cold and numbing sensations down my legs and adrenaline shot through my system in waves. It looked at if we were walking in slow motion. Thinking perhaps it was just me, I told the person I was with what I was feeling. To my surprise, they were experiencing the exact same sensations! We both had trouble walking down the hall, and never made it to the casino entrance.

We turned around and walked back out to the parking garage and soon as the fresh air hit, both of us felt normal again, and I could breathe. The lightheadedness went away. So, we thought let’s walk in again and see if it gets better. This time we kept walking into the casino and tried to sit down for something to eat. The shortness of breath got so bad that we had to walk out again. Granted there were people who were not affected by this, but both of us were. I myself, suffer with various seasonal allergies and food sensitivities, and I find that the cleaner my lifestyle is, the more I do react to. The less toxic I become, the more intolerant and sensitive I become of anything toxic in the air. 

After we left again, we felt normal but drained and decided to try Harrah’s instead. When we walked in everything felt fine and we could breathe normally. The difference was that you could smell the residue from the smokers, while at borgata this artificial scent seemed to mask it. I couldn’t understand what was going on. As I was thinking, I remembered a similar incident when I went to the Tropicana a few months back for a comedy show. There was a smoky mist coming out of the vents in attempt to create an outdoor night atmosphere for the re-created town. While standing in line for the comedy show, I had the same type of reaction.

When I got home, I decided to do some research to see if there were any other reports from people having the same reactions and I came up with many confused people writing posts not knowing why they were responding this way. I also found a detailed article about the scented air products:

http://aromasys.biz/index.php

I am very concerned for those people who may become harmed by these toxic chemicals being outputted and designed by companies to put in hotel and casino vent systems. We have enough pollution in our atmosphere the way it is! This could raise some serious health concerns for those who have serious asthma and for small children.