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Due to the environment many of us live in, the sense of smell is becoming increasingly less important. The full capacities of this once vital sense are being subconsciously subordinated to the other senses of hearing and seeing. In other species the sense of smell is much more highly developed as, indeed, it is in those human societies today that remain in close contact with nature and depend on this sense, in conjunction with all the others, for day-to-day survival.

Denying your senses

Your nose is an extremely sensitive sensory organ and your sense of smell is many thousands of times more acute than your sense of taste. Because of this, you, like everybody else, have probably experienced a sudden and vivid association evoked by a particular smell, perhaps reminding you of a person, place, or event often from long ago and until that moment quite forgotten.

But air pollution, both indoors and outdoors, dulls and damages the sense of smell. By reacting badly to an unpleasant smell your body is warning you that you should not be breathing that air. But if you have no choice, as many of us don’t, then the warning goes unheeded. But you do pay a price. By denial, you can add to your already overtaxed stress level, which can lead on to stress-related symptoms and eventually to illness. And the more you deny your senses the less the warning bells ring. Few people, for example, seem to notice the strong chemical smells associated with detergents, cleaners, and cosmetics on supermarket shelves, or the sharp and irritating smell of synthetic fabrics in clothes or carpet stores.

Often you will find the most overpowering accumulations of smells in newly decorated and furnished offices or hotel rooms where almost everything used is now chemically based. However, many people do suffer from stress and allergic reactions to just these sources and never realize what the cause might be.

You often find that a thoroughly unpleasant smell of some new purchase, perhaps made of plastic, seems to diminish after a few days and you assume that because the odour has lessened so have the chemical vapours. But what probably has happened is that olfactory fatigue has set in. This is a condition where your sense of smell adapts but the danger remains the same. You may even come to like a smell that is harmful to you — another facet of the adaption syndrome. For example, a weekend woodworker might come to enjoy, or even become addicted to, the smell of adhesives in the workshop, and never suspect that exposure to those same fumes is the cause of fuzzy thinking on Monday mornings. As Dr Alfred Zamm, an American physician and clinical ecologist, says: “. . . if you can’t eat it, don’t breathe it.”

Your sense of smell

Some of the most common pollutants that erode your ability to smell include: vehicle exhausts; factory emissions; smog; vapours from chemicals inside buildings; decorating products; plastics; artificial fragrances from household cleaners; cosmetics; and air fresheners.

Unfortunately, many of the odours you will come across in your everyday environment are not only unpleasant, they are also toxic and damaging.

Examples include: tobacco and fuel smoke; nail polish remover; air fresheners and aerosols in general; many plastics and adhesives; and paints, vinyl wallpaper, and paper removers.

Some naturally occurring silents, such as as those from the terpene family, resins from coniferous woods, and rubber, can also cause allergies in some people, as can dust, damp, mould, and bacteria.

Any of the pollutants listed above can cause a range of symptoms, including respiratory problems, congestion, blocked nose, asthma and allergies, headaches, nausea, increased intolerance to chemical odours, and a range of nervous disorders.

Aroma as part of design

It is an interesting fact that when interior design or architectural magazines describe a home, colour, form, space, and texture are all frequently mentioned — but smell hardly ever. It is as if this was of no consequence, or that all interiors are expected to be odourless and sterile. But unfortunately many modern interiors have a decidedly unpleasant smell, which gives warning of an accumulation of pollutants, stale air, condensation, and cooking odours. The design of a home, in order to be complete, must embrace aroma, too.

Detoxifying the home

To avoid harmful and unpleasant smells in the home and to create an environment that is naturally scented, first you will need to detoxify and clean your home. As a starting point, you should try the following suggestions:

• Remove or reduce all sources of pollution and unpleasant smells. Gradually replace all offending items with safe and natural materials, furnishings, fabrics, and floorcoverings, and decorate your home with natural paints. These natural materials all have their own subtle and pleasant aromasand it is extremely therapeutic to be surrounded by them.
• Keep all rooms and cupboards clean. Use safe and nontoxic cleaning materials, such as herbal soaps, furniture creams, floor polishes, and fabric shampoos. These should be either odourless or have a natural fragrance. Use bicarbonate of soda to remove unpleasant smells from fabrics, refrigerators, and rooms generally.
• Ventilate all rooms adequately, particularly bathrooms, toilets, and kitchens, in order to remove both cooking smells and moist air.

The odourless home

Many chemically sensitive people can lose their entire sense of smell but it usually returns following a course of treatment by a clinical ecologist. For allergy sufferers, it may be necessary to make part of the home, or at least one room, a “sanctuary” that is completely free from odours.

Sufferers may find it difficult to pinpoint the sources of the problem smells and some allergy and environmental medicine hospitals have resorted to the help of former patients as “super-sniffers”, who because of their peculiarly sensitive noses can detect the type and source of many chemical smells. Natural gas can be a powerful sensitizer and, if this substance is diagnosed by a clinical ecologist as a cause of the problem, the gas supply will have to be cut off before it enters the home. The repercussions of this can be extreme — heating, cooking, etc — and it should be considered only as a last resort. Any other sensitizers should also be removed and it may be necessary to install a filter system.

Aromatherapy

This is an ancient branch of herbal medicine and is thought to have originated in either India or China. Essential oils are extracted from flowers, leaves, roots, seeds, barks, and resins and these are usually massaged into the skin, inhaled, or used in a bath. These oils have been found to be particularly beneficial in treating a range of common ailments and they are also generally revitalizing and energizing for the body and mind as a whole.

There have been many theories to explain the effects of aromatherapy and, although not scientifically proven, it is widely accepted that the oils stimulate the olfactory responses and nerves in the skin surface. These effects are passed on to the brain area controlling the emotions and, via the nervous system, to the pituitary gland, which controls the other major glands in the body.

Aromatherapy is used as an aid to relaxation and as a way of bringing you back in touch with all your senses, including that of smell.

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