I’m aware that odors are gaseous chemical compounds that our olfactory receptors can distinguish. But are particularly vile scents potentially detrimental to your health?
Some compounds like CO are odorless, yet fatal. So what is our body really telling us when we smell something revolting and is it reliable?
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> So what is our body really telling us when we smell something revolting and is it reliable?
I think this is the most interesting question, because it answers the rest of what you asked.
Smell is a way for our brain to “taste” the environment through gasses and volatile compounds which are released from… most things. A smell attracts us, it repels us, and that tells us what a smell is for; it’s for telling us what’s around, and how we should react to it. Smells associated with toxins and diseases that were common to pre-modern humans are meant to repel us, to keep us safe. If something smells like rotting meat we probably shouldn’t handle it, eat it, or do other risky things with it. If something smells sweet and delicious the odds are good that (assuming it’s naturally occurring) it’s something we might want in our lives.
The twist is that today we run into a world of smells that are largely created by humans, not just the smells of plants, animals and nature in general. CO to use your example isn’t really something humans evolved to detect, because high concentrations in nature are rare.
One important thing to note however is that the smell itself is harmless, or rather the act of smelling is harmless. It isn’t the *smell* of something deadly that kills you, a smell alone won’t harm you unless the source of the scent is harmful in the concentration you’re exposed to.
Can be. Most of the gnarly ones are like phosphorous, sulfur, or ammonia containing and those are all toxic. Ozone is super toxic and smells like electricity. Anything that the legged fish that evolved into us developed an aversion for usually was related to avoiding toxins. Not perfect though, as you mentioned. Some things smell really good but are super cancerous, usually made by people in a lab with alchemy
A few years ago researchers said that breathing hydrogen sulfide, one of major ingredients of smelly farts, is good for you. To my family, you’re welcome.
I remember being in a chemistry class and our teacher instructed us on mercaptans. For some he said if you ever smell this again in your life, get out immediately. Your nose will lose the ability to smell it quickly and if you stay it will kill you.
Closely tied to this is [Miasma Theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miasma_theory) which was the idea that diseases were called by “bad air” (“night air”), basically bad-smelling air (some people went with connected ideas, like the idea that inhaling food odors could make you gain weight).
Miasma theory is why plague doctor masks look the way they do–there were pleasant smelling herbs and the like stuck in the nose-pieces to protect the wearers from the miasma. (They did function in a similar fashion to modern facemasks, so they *did* provide some protection, just not for the reason they believed at the time.)
Miasma theory was also a big impetus for cleaning sewage out of the rivers in cities–again, this *did* help with public health, even if the reasoning wasn’t quite right.
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