Sense of smell – fascinating facts

Smell is a vital element of our senses and an important component of our daily lives, but have you ever wondered exactly why that is? How has it influenced among other things, art and history?

According to some recent research, the aroma of a good old bit of brekkie (breakfast) in the morning is a man’s favourite smell, while for women, their most appealing scent would be the smell of newbornrn baby (whatever that smell is!). This blog highlights just some of the fascinating facts floating around about smell that you may not necessarily know.

Smell: Top ten facts

1. Scent cells renew every 28 days – so every four weeks, you get a new “nose”.
2. A woman’s sense of smell is much stronger than a man’s – it is higher in the first half of the menstrual cycle and reaches its peak when the lady is most fertile.
3. It is the first of all our senses to develop. Even before we are born, it is functioning.
4. It gets bored very easily. You may be aware of an aroma down one aisle in a food hall, but by the time you reach the tills, the scent has vanished and you’ll struggle to distinguish many other smells.
5. Humans have 5-6 million odour detecting cells in the body, impressed? That’s a minor scratch on the surface compared to the animal kingdom. A rabbit has 100 million and a dog, around the 200 million mark. So, the next time you wear a dodgy perfume or aftershave in the house, make sure a dog or rabbit is near you!
6. Our olfactory system peaks in our late teens but gradually declines after that. So, the next time you wear a dodgy perfume or aftershave in the house, make sure no 18 or 19 year old is near you!
7. In the Spring and Summer, our ability to smell is better due to the additional moisture in the air.
8. As a result, people who have an impaired ability to distinguish a fragrance or odour, and therefore taste, tend to follow diets that are less healthy during these periods.
9. In the future, perspiration could be the next best thing for crime solving. The food we eat, gender and even state of mind combine to make a person’s sweat unique (lovely!).
10. People who can’t smell have a condition called ‘anosmia’.

So whether you need to mask a foul odour in a room with an air freshener or destroy the odour completely with an aircare system, remember that it’s not as simple as it looks. Smell is a powerful tool that has the ability to make or break peoples opinions of your business depending on the time of year or even how old your visitors/customers are.

Finally, consider what it must be like for people who suffer from cacosmia. Even the nicest smell is off putting to a sufferer of cacosmia – they perceive ALL smells as something revolting, such as vomit!