AN AMERICAN disc jockey with a severe allergy to perfume has been awarded more than $10 million in damages after being deliberately exposed to a “romantic” scent by a malicious colleague.

Erin Weber, formerly the top-rated lunchtime host of a country music show on WYCD-FM in Michigan, claimed in a lawsuit that the allergy resulted in her leaving the station after a 26-year career in radio.

She had been unable to find another job as a DJ, she claimed, and was reduced to working as a voiceover specialist. Her voice can be heard by millions, announcing the floors in Otis lifts.

After eight days of deliberation, a jury awarded her $10.6 million (£5.8 million) in compensation and damages, including $2 million for anguish and distress.

Ms Weber, 43, said her allergy problems began after she suffered a violent reaction to nail polish that had been spilt at work. She said the nail polish incident, which happened in 1999, caused her to suffer chemical burns in her airways, vocal cord swelling, laboured breathing and laryngitis.

It also made her allergic to a perfume worn by Linda Lee, a rival disc jockey on the station’s afternoon programme.

The scent, Lancôme’s Tresor, is described by its manufacturer as “romantic, sensual, and emotional”. To Ms Weber, however, it was potentially fatal, with doctors telling her that exposure to the perfume could lead to her death.

After catching a whiff of Ms Lee’s perfume, Ms Weber said she lost her voice. On another occasion, she said she “felt an electric shock through my entire body”.

The radio station said that after Ms Weber complained, it ordered Ms Lee to stop wearing the perfume. It also changed the disc jockeys’ schedules to make sure that they never worked together. But in an e-mail sent to the station manager, and presented as evidence during the trial, Ms Weber said that her colleague deliberately walked past her at a country music festival. “Linda nearly brushed past me and a cloud of perfume trailed behind me,” the presenter wrote.

“To have brought the perfume with her suggests forward planning. This appears to be a premeditated attack which was entirely unprovoked by me in any way. Please tell me what steps you intend to take to ensure my safety.”

Ms Weber took three months off work for medical reasons in 2000. A year later, she filed a discrimination lawsuit against the station with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She said that her employer retaliated by pulling out of an endorsement deal, cancelling her e-mail account and giving her a less popular show. In September 2001, she was dismissed for not coming to work. Ms Weber said that she had missed shifts because her employer had not accommodated her health issues.

The station plans to appeal.

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