Zicam Lawsuit: What’s so big about Smell Loss?

July 22nd, 2009. By AbiK

Funny thing about your sense of smell. Unlike vision or hearing, you don’t really think about your sense of smell until a specific circumstance: that early morning whiff of coffee brewing, an aromatic stroll through a rose garden, the powdery scent of a baby. Or the unmistakable and intrusively pungent odor of a skunk…These are the scents that some former Zicam users are alleging they can no longer smell—because of Zicam.

If you’ve ever wondered what the top 3 challenges might be for individuals who suffer from smell loss, here they are:

Pleasure

As mentioned in some of the examples above, we gain pleasure from many different scents. According to the SenseofSmell.org, humans are capable of recognizing 10,000 distinct odors. Additionally, we recall smells with a 65% accuracy after a year, while the visual recall of photos sinks to about 50% after only 3 months. It’s no wonder we’re able to recall fond memories simply by recognizing a familiar scent.

Danger

Oddly enough, it’s so obvious, and yet when we think of smell—and losing the sense of smell—we don’t always think of the dangers:

Gas & Smoke Detection: Without sense of smell, you would be incapable of detecting gas leak—possibly until it was too late. Additionally, you would not be able to detect smoke—which is often the first sensory-based indication of a fire. This means complete reliance on gas, CO2 and smoke detection alarms.

Food Spoilage: Imagine not being about to detect whether food has begun to spoil. In a study led by Thomas Hummel, M.D. and Steven Nordin, Ph.D. (SenseofSmell.com, “Quality of life in Olfactory Dysfunction”), they quote work done by Temmel et al (2002) that showed 50% of smell loss patients (n=278) reported eating rotten food.

Insecurity

This is probably the least thought of consequence of smell loss. Yet, in the study referenced above, 41% of smell loss patients had little perception of their own body odor. This can lead to tremendous feelings of insecurity—and it’s something that the “smelling public” takes completely for granted.

Sort of puts things in perspective, and shows that yes, smell loss is a pretty big deal.

Tags: Zicam

This was posted on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 at 12:33 pm and is filed under Emerging Issues . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.