“Odor Basics�, Understanding and Using Odor

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Friday, December 12, 2008Dear IEQ List Subscribers,I am glad to have "tickled" your interest in odor detection. How about a mechanism for detecting elevated (above 800 ppm) levels of odorless Carbon Dioxide (CO2) gas?Do you think that building occupants in a "stuffy building" might be reacting to elevated levels of other effluents? I recall exchanging few emails on this interesting phenomenon with Gyan Rajhans who had proposed the optimum CO2 levels of less than 800 ppm in the Ontario's Interministerial Office Building Guidelines from circa 1989. "Gyan... I stand to be corrected"! Wishing you all a happy holiday season, Cutz, CIHMarkham, Ontario, CanadaEmail: andrewcutz@... Further to: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/iequality/message/18117 (COPY & PASTE)WITH REFERENCE TO...Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:29:46 +0000From: iequality To: iequality Subject: Digest Number 2367IE Quality IE Quality Messages In This Digest (7 Messages) 1a. Re: OSHA: An agency that is ripe for an overhaulFrom: vdaliessio 1b. Re: OSHA: An agency that is ripe for an overhaulFrom: snk1955@... 2a. RE: “Odor Basicsâ€, Understanding and Using OdorFrom: Sepp 2b. Re: “Odor Basics�, Understanding and UsingFrom: LiveSimply 2c. Re: MCS "fear based"From: erikmoldwarrior 3. RE: “Odor Basics�, Understanding and UsingFrom: Carl E. Grimes 4. Re: Odor BasicsFrom: AirwaysEnv@... View All Topics | Create New Topic Messages 1a. Re: OSHA: An agency that is ripe for an overhaul Posted by: "vdaliessio" vince.daliessio@... vdaliessio Thu Dec 11, 2008 9:40 am (PST) Forgive me, but I don't see how 'reforming" OSHA will have any effectat all on occupational health and safety. Health and safety is not a result of Federal government intervention.Like any other good in society, it is a product of the alignment ofincentives. In other words, the key to achieving and sustaining safe,healthful workplaces is ensuring that the interests of employers(profits, protection of property, retaining productive workers,business sustainability) and employees (wages, personal safety andhealth) are aligned. To do this, the employer and employee must first overcome all of theobstacles interfering with such an alignment. Some of the obstaclesare of nature and must be managed. Many others are economic,regulatory, and bureaucratic.Reforming a federal agency with a half-billion dollar budget, thatcannot even inspect 2% of business establishments in a year will becompletely ineffective, and may even do more harm than good. We, as health and safety professionals must take a holistic view ofthe entirety of all of the interests and obstacles at work in theserelationships, and offer solutions that will advance toward the goalof injury- and illness-free workplaces for all. > If I remember correctly, Herz claims MCS is fear based. > Is someone who has a peanut allergy told their efforts to avoid peanut exposure or their allergic reactions are "fear-based"? > My first thought when my commanding officer hit the floor after yelling in my face for disobeying orders was that I had made him so enraged that he'd had a heart attack.As if that wasn't surreal enough, to have your CO suddenly drop and start writhing around, turning colors, the sergeant asked me "What did you have for lunch?"What? The poor guy is dying... and this crazy sergeant wants to indulge in idle conversation? "A sandwich" I replied.This seemed to make the sgt. mad, for he yelled loudly "WHAT KIND OF SANDWICH"."Peanut butter""That's it then" he said as he turned to help the captain, who was curled up on the floor, gasping for breath.This was an impressive demonstration of peanut allergy.Just a few molecules was enough to knock him out, and he never saw it coming. There was no way this could be any kind of "fear-based" response.As I said in Chapt 23 of Mold Warriors, this incident shaped my view of mold reactivity.As soon as I realized that my "allergy" wasn't acting like anything like an allergy, I remembered my captain, and said "That's IT then".-MW Back to top Reply to sender |Reply to group |Reply via web post Messages in this topic (3) 3. RE: “Odor Basics�, Understanding and Using Posted by: "Carl E. Grimes" grimes@... grimeshh Thu Dec 11, 2008 3:52 pm (PST) ,I've also had clients who had no sense of smell but would accurately react to certain "odors" as if they could smell them. Pinching the nose would stop the reaction. So some sort of physical "detection" was occuring beyond wild imaginings, psychodrama or the occult.My experience agrees with your description of what happens a new developer "puts 2+2 together." Humans are not "wired" to constantly find disturbance, they prefer to seek the opposite. Which, I guess, would also be accurately identified as "psychological." Does that make it bad, also?Carl GrimesHealthy Habitats LLC-----> > > Here's another one for the discussion (see below).> > If I remember correctly, Herz claims MCS is fear based.> Issomeone who has a peanut allergy told their efforts to avoid peanut exposure or their allergic > reactions are "fear-based"?> > When someonefirst develops MCS and puts 2+2 together, noticing that a lot of physical effects > follow after an odiferous experience, there will be a period of adjustment where anything that > smells will give rise to a pause that could be construed as fear based, but most people pass > through that stage soon enough, realizing that not everything that smells causes a reaction.> > Herz and the other guy who recently wrote a popular book about our olafactory senses have not > studied the science about chemicals and toxins and poisons etc. And or get paid by the fragrance > industry. And fail to take into consideration that many chemicals without a smell, cause the same > toxic responses.> > It is possible to perceive odours and not have any emotional or physicalresponse to them. Just > like it is possible to die from things that have no odour - radon, carbon monoxide..., or to be > harmed by other poisons when one's sense of smell has been compromised (allergic rhinitis for > example wouldcontribute to that) And I'm told that it is not uncommon for people who have been > poisoned by carbon monoxide to develop MCS. If it was a fear based response, they'd be walking > around afraid of things that don't smell.> > linda> (see article and release below... explaining one of the original purposes of having a nose)> > > > Nose's alarm system found> > > http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/309300> > > ...> "Scientists had thought such smells acted directly on nerve endings in> the nose, but the study in mice suggests special cells in the tip of> the nose act as air quality control sensors that protect the body from> harmful chemicals.> ...> "This is one of these really hard-wired reflexes. It gives you time to> get out," Restrepo said in a telephone interview.> ...> And they said it takes more than a mere whiff of an offending odor to> trigger the response. Restrepo said only potentially dangerous levels> of odors can set off the protective gagging-and-coughing response.> ...> "There are some people who are especially sensitive to these> irritants."> ...> > > > Irritating Smells Alert Special Cells, NIH-Funded Study Finds > > http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/news/releases/08/03_04_08.htm> > > If you cook, you know. Chop an onion and you risk crying over your cutting board as a burning > sensation overwhelms your eyes and nose. Scientists do not know why certain chemical odors, > like onion, ammonia and paint thinner, are so highly irritating, but new research in mice has > uncovered an unexpected role for specific nasal cavity cells. Researchers funded by the National > Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes > of Health, describe this work in the March issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology, now available > online.> > > Weihong Lin, Ph.D., of the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine and University of > land, Baltimore County, led the study which discovered that a particular cell, abundant near > the entry of many animal noses, plays a crucial and previously unknown role in transmitting > irritating and potentially dangerous odors. Dr. Lin and colleagues from both universities plus the > Mount Sinai School of Medicine identified the role of this solitary chemosensory cell in transmitting > irritating chemical odors in the noses of mice.> > > Scientists have found similar solitary chemosensory cells in the nasal cavities, airways and > gastrointestinal tracts of many mammals as well as fish, frogs and alligators; they think it is likely > that they are also present in humans, explains Finger, Ph.D., one of the senior co-> authors at the University of Colorado Denver.> > > Prior to this work, scientists who study smell and taste thought that irritating odors directly > stimulated the trigeminal nerve, which senses touch, temperature and pain throughout the head > region, including the delicate membranes that line the inside of the nose. The research team, > under the guidance of Diego Restrepo, Ph.D., found that solitary chemosensory cells scattered in > the epithelium inside the front of the nose respond to high levels of irritating odors and relay > signals to trigeminal nerve fibers.> > > "This elegant research corrects an erroneous assumption about how irritating odors are perceived > and expands our understanding of olfaction," says F. Battey, M.D., Ph.D., director of > NIDCD. "With further investigation, it also might lead to a better understanding of why some > people are exceptionally sensitive to irritating odors."> > > Solitary chemosensory cells on the surface of the nasal cavity are in close contact with trigeminal > nerve fibers which end just below the surface. Earlier research revealed that these cells contain > bitter taste receptors and that bitter substances applied to the surface of the nasal cavity trigger a > trigeminal nerve response.> > > Intrigued, Drs. Restrepo and Finger decided to explore whether solitary chemosensory cells > respond to irritating odors. Using nasal tissue from mice, the scientists measured a variety of > changes in solitary chemosensory cells as they exposed the cells to low and high levels of several > irritating, volatile chemical odors.> > > Among their observations were changes in electrical activity in the cells-which indicates a > response to an outside stimulus-and changes in intracellular calcium ion concentration-which > indicates signaling to other cells. Their measurements demonstrated that the solitary > chemosensory cells responded to the odors and relayed sensory information to trigeminal nerve > fibers.> > > Once stimulated, the trigeminal nerve will convey pain and burning sensations and can trigger > protective reflexes such as gagging and coughing. The architecture of nasal tissue with solitary > chemosensory cells on the surface and trigeminal nerve fibers just below allows the nose to > detect a greater number of irritating odors, the scientists explain.> > > Fortunately, the threshold for triggering a response is high, so exposure to a small amount of an > irritating chemical, as might naturally emanate from some kinds of fresh fruit, will not bring on > gagging and coughing. For example, lemons contain the volatile chemicals citral and geraniol but > at levels too low to trigger a trigeminal response. Only high, potentially dangerous levels of odors > will trigger the protective gagging-and-coughing response.> > > The researchers point out that their findings provide an example of the Law of Specific Nerve > Energies, conceived by Johannes Muller in 1826. Muller said that the way we perceive a > stimulus depends on the nerve or sensory system that conveys it rather than the physical nature > of the stimulus itself. In the case of irritating odors, we perceive them as irritating because they > are transmitted via the trigeminal nerve, leading the brain to interpret the message as pain rather > than as a smell.> > > The researchers say their findings raise new questions about how irritating odors are detected. > They say more research is needed to explore whether solitary chemosensory cells are > programmed to recognize specific irritants, which receptors are involved, and what steps a solitary > chemosensory cell uses to convert a chemical stimulus to a signal it relays to the trigeminal nerve.> > > The NIDCD supports and conducts research and research training on the normal and disordered > processes of hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech and language and provides health > information, based upon scientific discovery, to the public. For more information about NIDCD > programs, see the Web site at www.nidcd.nih.gov.> NIH-the nation´s medical research agency-includes 27 institutes and centers and is a > component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal > agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it > investigates the causes, treatments and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more > information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.> > > > > Win a trip with your 3 best buddies. Enter today. Back to top Reply to sender |Reply to group |Reply via web post Messages in this topic (1) 4. Re: Odor Basics Posted by: "AirwaysEnv@..." AirwaysEnv@... stevetemes Thu Dec 11, 2008 5:21 pm (PST) I believe that some people develop a chemical hypersensitivity that involves the sensing of a specific chemical via a mechanism similar to an antigen-antibody complex but is, instead, a chemical-ligand complex sensed by neurons on the vanilloid receptor of the trigeminal nerve.http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/sigma/rbi-handbook/sg_ls_cs_rbibook_vanilloid.pdfSteve TemesIn a message dated 12/11/2008 12:41:56 PM Eastern Standard Time, urbanfengshuihotmail writes: > Muller said that the way we perceive a stimulus depends on the nerve or > sensory system that conveys it rather than the physical nature of the stimulus > itself. In the case of irritating odors, we perceive them as irritating > because they are transmitted via the trigeminal nerve, leading the brain to > interpret the message as pain rather than as a smell.> > > The researchers say their findings raise new questions about how irritating > odors are detected. They say more research is needed to explore whether > solitary chemosensory cells are programmed to recognize specific irritants, which > receptors are involved, and what steps a solitary chemosensory cell uses to > convert a chemical stimulus to a signal it relays to the trigeminal nerve. Back to top Reply to sender |Reply to group |Reply via web post Messages in this topic (1) Recent Activity 1 New Members 2 New LinksVisit Your Group Yahoo! Health Memory Loss Are you at risk for Alzheimers? Search Ads Get new customers. List your web site in Yahoo! Search. Yahoo! Groups Going Green Zone Learn to go green. Save energy. Save the planet. Need to Reply?Click one of the "Reply" links to respond to a specific message in the Daily Digest. Create New Topic |Visit Your Group on the WebMessages | Files | Photos | Links | Polls FAIR USE NOTICE:This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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