Well my Google Alerts for “anosmia” and “loss of smell” are once again going nuts as the media joins the Zicam-bashing bandwagon with the release of a new study following 25 patients and the use of homeopathic nasal zinc therapies…
That’s right! Three-hundred people have visited this site and answered the question, “Were you born with a sense of smell?” Here are the results so far:
While surfing through my Twitter Feed, I noticed a headline that I just had to click on. @72suited posted a link to Honolulu seeking to ban ‘BO’ on buses put out by the Associated Press.
According to the article, “the Honolulu City Council is considering a bill that would impose up to a $500 fine and/or up to six months in jail for public transit passengers convicted of being too smelly.”
Most girly pampering out there seems to involve the sense of smell (thank you, aroma therapy craze!), which of course is lost on me for the most part. So as far pampering goes, the only sense that can really be pampered is one—touch. And so, if I am going to pamper myself with any bath product, that bath product first and foremost has to feel good.
Anyone with anosmia can tell you how common it is for others to forget that they can’t smell. And I’ll confess: growing up, I used to get offended when close friends or even my own mother would forget about my disability, thinking that if I were blind or deaf then they wouldn’t forget. But now I realize that the ability to smell IS different, and that I can’t take it personally when loved ones forget. It’s not a disability that’s readily apparent. I look normal. I act normal. I get it.
But over this past year, since starting the blog here at NeverSmell.com, I’ve noticed a change…
Just for fun, I did a quick search for how many times the word “smell” appears in the Bible. Below is a list of verses I’ve found so far (though it varies depending on your translation, of course…I used NKJV):
The other day, when my husband bought the new T-Mobile G1 phone, he turned to me in the store and said, “Heather, you should know that this phone has a new phone smell to it.” The sales guy jumped in and said, “Oh that’ll go away,” presuming that I didn’t like the “new factory smell” or something. And then we felt that we had to explain that I didn’t have a sense of smell. And any anosmic can probably predict his reaction…
Because I’ve been busy with other projects lately and haven’t had the time to be witty or informative myself here at NeverSmell.com, I’ll direct you, faithful reader, to another article written by Lucy Mangan on being born with no sense of smell entitled, Scents and Sensitivity and hosted by The Guardian.
Heather Ackmann was born without a sense of smell (congenital anosmia) and constantly finds herself explaining all kinds of strange things to strangers, like eating habits, whether she uses deodorant, and whether she can "smell this." She built this website for the curious who are afraid to ask, and for the afflicted who love to share. You can read more about me here