Thinking about Smelling

The powerful effects of what we smell on how we live was discussed in a recent article in The New York Times—could it be that we’re about to enter “The Smell Age.”

On January 13, 2022, Winston Choi-Schagrin (“Sometimes, Life Stinks.  So He Invented the Nasal Ranger,” https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/13/climate/nasal-ranger-chuck-mcginley.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Climate%20and%20Environment) reported on the life and work of Chuck McGinley, a chemical engineer, an expert on assessing and managing smell-related situations.

Choi-Schagrin describes McGinley’s work; most of which relates to dealing with emissions from factories and sewage treatment facilities that are so powerful and negative that it seems OK to classify them as “pollution;” recent firm projects have also included developing “smellscapes” for interior spaces and similar efforts.  Choi-Schagrin shares that “the growing demand for Mr. McGinley’s services and instruments signals society’s heightened awareness of the power of odour. . . .  Of the human senses, smell is perhaps the most elusive yet powerful. In any given moment it can be a time capsule, jerking us back to a half-forgotten past. Or it can linger, triggering feelings that can’t quite be placed or described. . . . Though people have confidence in describing what they see and hear, and the objects they touch, we are often tripped up by smells. We speak largely in metaphor. A smell is often ‘like’ something else: a rose, a wet dog, a grandmother’s house.”  The article concludes with this quote from Mr. McGinley: “’We go through our life with the mute button on our nose,’ he said. ‘Turn off that mute button. Listen with your nose.’”

Some worry that scentscaping a place that they use will cause allergic reactions, but non-allergic options are plentiful, so scent away—if you don’t you’re ignoring an important way to make people’s lives better and to help them do well whatever it is they planned—whether that’s writing a book or getting along with their kids or falling asleep.

An area should be very lightly scented.  You want the odour used to not be mentioned by anyone who arrives in a space and for visitors to notice that a scent is present only when they’re asked about it directly but not be able to identify what it is because the odor is not very strong—over time and multiple visits, you’ll develop a sense of how much is just right, like in the Goldilocks fairy tale.

In this article we talk about all sorts of scents and how they influence thinking and behaving (also search in our search bar top right of our website for “scents” or “smells”, see also our separate category on Sounds and Scents.