I was walking up the stairs into Suburban Station today and caught the smell of shoe polish that was wafting over from the shoeshine stand nearby. I like that smell in small doses. Which made me think about a few others:
- Gasoline
- Latex paint
- PineSol
I’m sure there are many others. It’s funny, because I mean small doses when I talk about these. Back in the days when I used to work in R&D, I worked in lab where we had all the chemicals, from the sweet smelling to the foul. But you have to be careful around those ones that smell sweet….you can go from yum to yuck in 3.2 seconds. I used to be in Headache City every time I had to wash glassware in benzene. It smelled great, but it chews your liver like it has side of fava beans and nice Chianti.
Know why I got out of the polymer physics business? Because I read a study of life expectancy based on profession. Know who lives shorter than firefighters, dentists, or coal mine workers? Chemists? Yep, that’s right, people who wash glassware in benzene. The average life expectancy for those people is 58 years. They usually die of liver and associated cancers. Benzene is a mutagen. So, I like scents in small doses. Very small doses.
