That foul odour wafting your way can do more than make you gag – it could also affect your body and mind.
For Elaine Corner, stepping into her garden on a summer’s day can be unbearable. She likens it to “walking behind an open bin lorry”. Even with all the windows shut in her home in the English market town of Westbury, the retired teacher says she still often can’t escape the nausea-inducing stench from a nearby waste treatment plant. “We can’t use our garden or go for a walk, you feel as though you’re going to vomit,” says Corner.
At some point, we’ve all caught the rank waft of decomposing waste as we take out the refuse, drive past a rubbish dump or encounter the sickly pong from a factory. Just imagine living constantly with such a stench.
Yet we give little attention to the health and quality-of-life impacts of such odour pollution. Bad smells are often dismissed as subjective or trivial. Research shows people typically value their sense of smell less than vision, hearing, touch and taste. Some US college students have even admitted they would rather lose their sense of smell than their phone.
It’s not just the discomfort that people experience from living with terrible smells: studies link unpleasant odours in urban areas to health complaints ranging from headaches and nausea to difficulty breathing or disturbed sleep. They can also have long-lasting mental and physiological effects. A growing body of research is helping us understand the surprisingly significant role scent plays in the health of our bodies and minds.
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