My wife is very anti-scent, and her workplace I believe has anti-scent rules, but some people don't care and wear thick perfumes anyway. Not everyone can stand to have to sit next to someone who wears a thick fog of perfume all day, especially if they are allergic or have trouble breathing because of it, so they ban it at many work places. It's like that annoying teen who sprays half a bottle of Axe bodyspray and stand in the same room, it feels like someone is spraying the can down your throat! It's almost worse than having people smoke next to you!

Oh man, that explains why a Canadian friend of mine was complaining about a lady in his workplace wearing perfume and I was completely mystified.

Artificial scents are the most potent trigger for asthma attacks (along with tobacco) and asthma attacks kill many times more people than terrorism does, every year.

I've never ever seen what he's describing. I've never even heard of it until today. It is absolutely not ubiquitous in the US.