The Scenting of America : ...

From the moment we wake up--possibly on sheets washed in detergent scented to convince us they were freshly dried in the sun--we are bombarded with a dizzying smorgasbord of smells.

Our toothpastes, shampoos, bath soaps, water softeners, baby powders, mouthwashes, shaving creams, underarm deodorants, shower gels, hair sprays, hand lotions and other cosmetics nearly always carry distinctive fragrances . . . not to mention all the perfumes, colognes and after-shaves we then pour on. Even dental floss is likely to reek of cinnamon or peppermint.

Cabbage Patch Kids now come in scented and unscented versions. Barbie, not to be outdone, arrives with her own tiny vial of perfume.

Newspaper advertising sections feature scratch-’n’-sniff patches so humans can sample the odor of bacon-flavored dog food. “Aromatherapy” products--in which odor is a strong selling point--promise more tranquil baths or more invigorating showers--with research claims to back them up.

Magazines dotted with fragrance strips resemble portable perfume stores. Highly scented lingerie shops remind some of French brothels.

And even garbage smells fresher lately since lemon-scented trash bags hit the market. If your nose is already on tilt just thinking about the daily odorama it encounters, consider that the saturation point for smells may not be reached yet.

In our immediate future, experts say, will be perfumed lamp shades, paneling and furniture (scented to invoke olfactory memories of a mountain retreat or beachside villa), plastic bottles that smell like what’s inside (a ploy to deter consumers from opening bottles to smell the contents) and, perhaps, entire buildings scented via air-conditioning ducts.

In the wake of this scenting of America, research and concern are mounting.

Some enthusiasts speculate that mood-altering smells will become the “Muzak of the ‘90s,” improving lives by reducing stress, heightening alertness and productivity, deepening relaxation, inducing sleep and more.

On the other hand, allergists, dermatologists and environmental experts caution that some people may be adversely affected by increased fragrance use, and that indoor air in most buildings is already polluted enough.

In any case, the wooing of the nose is on.

According to Annette Green, vice president of the Fragrance Research Fund (which awards perfume industry-funded research grants to scientists studying the psychological and physiological effects of scents), “the whole area is really just breaking loose.”

According to Yale’s William Cain, a fellow of the John B. Pierce Foundation and a professor of environmental health and psychology, we are in a transition zone between using fragrances for personal aesthetics and expecting functional benefits from them.

“We’ve known from time immemorial that fragrances also influence how we feel, whether it’s to make us feel energized, relaxed or sexy,” Cain says. “. . . But there’s so much research and background that needs to be understood before these (mood-altering fragrances) can be brought

out in terms of commercial products.”

Even with minimal scientific research, though, large-scale applications are being tested.

“I think we’re going to be in the same situation (as Muzak),” predicts Tony Leardi, director of applications for Tagasako International, a leading-edge fragrance firm in Rockleigh, N.J. With Japan’s Shimizu Construction (which Leardi says is the world’s third largest construction company), Tagasako is developing a technology for computer-controlled pumping of scent into buildings via air-conditioning ducts.

Probing Its Effects

This year, two pilot projects--a rest station and a retirement home--opened in Japan to test the notion that such a system would have a positive effect on people, much as pleasant lighting and certain colors do.

In the meantime, dozens of researchers in universities around the United States are conducting experiments to see whether, if properly employed, smell really can affect lives for the better.

In Green’s view, preliminary results are encouraging. More conservative researchers believe it is too soon to tell, but they say the field is clearly worth investigating and the possibilities are endless.

“Some of the questions we’ve been asked are, ‘Can you reduce aggression on the subways of New York with odors?’ . . . (And) a truck manufacturer called me to see if there’s an odor they can spray in the truck to keep drivers more alert,” says Susan Schiffman, a clinical psychologist on the staff of Duke University Medical Center.

Like Smelling Salts

Schiffman believes that getting fragrances to achieve these and other objectives is well within the realm of possibility.

“Smelling salts for years have been known to keep people alert because they stimulate the trigeminal nerve. You know how, if you smell ammonia, you kind of perk up?”

Schiffman adds that various scents activate different nerves. Menthol, for example, activates a different nerve than oranges. And “odorants can stimulate a nerve that causes the release of adrenaline.”

According to Schiffman, “All of the cortex (the outer layer of the brain) in early animals was allotted to the sense of smell.” Now, Schiffman says, “that part of the brain still has to do with smell but it also includes neurons that mediate emotional information.”

Schiffman believes her research, as yet unpublished, confirms the notion that people can be made less depressed with pleasant odors.

Less Depression Cited

“If you take one group of patients and they don’t have odors and the other group does, those who smell the odors tend to rate themselves as less depressed on a depression scale.” The reason this works, she says, is that “you are activating emotional centers of the brain.”

Schiffman has also exposed patients to a “relatively neutral” odor such as apricot while instructing them to systematically relax. In such experiments (similar to those pioneered by Ivan Pavlov), the test is to see whether after repeatedly pairing the scent with heightened relaxation, the scent alone will trigger some relaxation.

“This works well,” Schiffman says.

Some ongoing research seeks to replicate work done in the mid-1980s for International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF), the world’s largest fragrance and flavor supplier, based in New York City.

Apple Spice and Blood Pressure

A key experiment there, done in conjunction with Yale University’s behavioral medicine clinic, recorded the blood pressure and heart rates of 300 subjects as they answered stressful questions. Some were exposed to an apple spice fragrance containing nutmeg oil and some were not.

According to IFF’s vice president of research, Craig Warren, “We found a reduction of stress both from the standpoint of muscle tension and blood pressure reduction as well as self-report (a person’s own feelings)” with the fragrance.

As a result of the research, IFF sought and received a patent on the use of nutmeg as a stress-reducing odorant, Warren says.

As to whether the effects were psychological (learned) or physiological (an inherited automatic response), Warren is unsure.

Which Came First?

“It could be either,” he says. “We weren’t able to separate it out experimentally. We tried.”

Schiffman puts it another way: “Do we learn, for example, to connect the smell of Christmas cookies with the home and safety or is that genetically wired in the brain?”

Whichever, don’t look for stress-reducing nutmeg to be incorporated in fine perfumes any time soon.

“The reason we haven’t done that is that nutmeg has a terpene-like smell, similar to Vicks Vaporub. You can’t make a fine fragrance that contains a large amount of nutmeg,” Warren says.

Positive Associations

In related studies at Syracuse University, Michael Carey, an assistant professor of psychology, has worked with cancer patients, using positively associated smells to counteract negative associations with chemotherapy treatments.

“Some patients will begin to get nauseous and even vomit in anticipation of their treatment,” he says. “They’re conditioned to the sights and sounds of the treatment, the more salient smells and the taste of it. Some of them say they can even taste the chemotherapy agent used on them.”

In research still in progress, Carey teamed the fragrance of roses, usually a positive association, with progressive relaxation training. His hope is that “later down the road, (patients) could use the aroma as a reminder, a cue to elicit a sense of comfort and relaxation.”

In another experiment, which has not yet yielded results, Carey divided subjects with public speaking phobias into two groups, both of which were asked to give speeches before a video camera. One group was exposed to apple spice fragrance with nutmeg, the other had no exposure to the odor, and both were measured for relaxation levels.

Strong Placebo Effect

With both of his research projects, Carey cautions that the placebo effect is so strong that the effectiveness of fragrance will depend “in large part on people wanting it to work.”

He adds that, even if strong correlations between fragrance and behavior are found, people needn’t fear being unconsciously manipulated by smell.

“I think it will be a subtle phenomenon if it exists at all,” says the researcher. “So before we get too concerned about the implications, we need to test these hypotheses.”

Some researchers, such as IFF’s Warren, are convinced that some individuals (with allergic or other reactions) could react adversely to scent.

‘Too Invasive’ for Workplace

“If we do find something to improve performance, it would have to be used in a personal delivery system,” Warren says. “It’s too invasive to odorize the whole work space.”

Yet research aimed at improving work performance continues.

At the University of Cincinnati, psychologist Joel Warm is studying whether fragrance can help those assigned to what are called “vigilance” tasks: air traffic controllers, nuclear power plant monitors, high-performance aircraft pilots or anyone who has to watch a computer screen carefully for a long time.

In Warm’s experiment, conducted with colleagues at Catholic University of America, subjects spend 40 minutes watching a computer display that flashes 24 times a minute and, occasionally, changes the distance between a dot and two lines by a few millimeters.

Vigilance Tested

Test subjects--with and without the benefit of stimulating scents such as peppermint and cashmeran (a sour smell)--are asked to notice when the distances change.

“It would seem like vigilance tasks are very simple . . . but people who engage in vigilance tasks say they’re more bored, irritated, feel more sleepy and have greater amounts of (bodily) complaints,” says Warm.

“Evolution may not have prepared us to serve as vigilance observers. We are information processors. . . . Even through history, patience is not necessarily our long suit.” It’s possible, he says, that “we’ve placed human workers in what may not be a very advantageous position.”

But might exposure to fragrance give humans a new edge? Perhaps even a new direction in evolution? All Warm can say now is that “both peppermint and cashmeran are rated by people as arousing.”

Reactions Vary

And that there are potential problems with using scent in the workplace, should the research be conclusive.

“Odors are very personal,” Warm explains. “Not everybody reacts to them in the same way. . . . Some of these things could trigger an asthmatic attack, lung problems, dermatitis problems if they’re used indiscriminately.

“Before you can assume there’s going to be a world filled with aromas that condition emotions and modify arousal, alertness and mood . . . there are a lot of technical problems that need to be solved.

“You have to find the common denominator fragrances that will not provoke undue illness or feelings of emotional distress in a small but meaningful portion of the population,” Warm adds.

Many Years Away

In his opinion, this is not going to happen tomorrow.

“I’ve had people telling me we have the cure for emotional disorders and boredom in the classroom--we’re just going to pump certain smells into the classroom. No way. It’s way out of line and it’s many, many years away before there’s going to be any applied technology.”

Already, however, most consumers are exposed to an unending symphony--some would say cacophony--of smells on a daily basis.

“The (Food and Drug Administration) tells me the average person uses about 12 different cosmetic products a day, most of which have fragrances,” says Dr. Walter Larsen, a clinical professor of dermatology at the University of Oregon health sciences center.

“Most cosmetics have fragrances and most fragrances consist of 50 to 150 different chemicals.”

The Daily Odorama

In addition to personal cosmetics, a typical nose may also encounter dozens of strong food smells, from bacon in the morning to Irish coffee at night. Simple housecleaning chores similarly engage the nostrils in a sniff-a-thon that begins with lemon-scented scouring powder and ends with carpet freshener that allows dirt left behind to smell better.

Still more odors greet the customers at gasoline stations, in hair and nail salons, at dry cleaning establishments, gymnasiums, movie theaters, doctor’s offices, car showrooms, bars and night clubs.

Perhaps the smelliest assault comes at the grocery store, where everything from deli products to detergents to candles to seafood to coffees and teas competes for attention.

Seeking olfactory relief in nature? Beaches, mountains, gardens, deserts, lakes, parks and forests offer distinctive smells--many pleasant, others repulsive.

Allergist Sounds Warning

Dr. Roger Fox, chairman of the American Academy of Allergy and Immunology’s committee on environmental control and air pollution, points out that people with allergies or asthma may be sensitive to strong odors of any type.

“No matter what their source, these odors may be very irritating to their membranes,” he says.

In his view, a better solution than adding more chemicals to the air is to clean it up and improve the circulation in buildings.

“We like to think that fresh air is the best thing,” says Fox, who adds that air quality in offices and other work sites is often poor, partly because fragrances containing volatile organic compounds and other aromatic substances become incorporated into the indoor air, which is inadequately ventilated.

Hay Fever Common

Fox notes that an estimated 20% of the U.S. population has hay fever, “the majority of whom are sensitive to airborne irritants. There are estimates that 40 or 45 million people have chronic rhinitis or nasal problems, a number which includes people who are irritated by strong airborne stimuli.

“I would not recommend it (diffusion of fragrance in public places) unless there was more medical research to substantiate that these odors and perfumes are not harmful to humans.”

Yale’s Cain has studied people who develop multiple chemical sensitivities and concludes that they are “very rare, but they’re real . . . their lives are almost always destroyed by the problem.”

He also recognizes legitimate concern about the “chemical burden we’re all being exposed to.”

Balance Benefits, Problems

But Cain cautions that there is a delicate balance that must be considered.

“How conservative you have to be (about introducing scents in public air spaces) is a matter largely of your philosophy of how to balance the pleasures of life against avoiding the dangers,” he says. “As far as I know, at this point there’s no proven correlation between the amount of fragrance someone inhales and any chronic health effects.

“I would find it hard to believe fragrance is going to work any kind of magic,” he adds. “But if you can achieve increased productivity in the workplace, then why not try it? . . . Aside from the question of whether there is any adverse reaction to the inhalation of these chemicals, it certainly seems like fair play to me for the employer to do something that might enhance the workplace function.”

Cain suspects the result is likely to be subtle rather than enormous gains.

“The workplace is too complex for one factor to be responsible for enormous gains,” he explains.

“I think the right fragrance will do the right job in the right context, but the field is still trying to find its sea legs.” As the University of Cincinnati’s Joel Warm puts it: “From a professional point of view, I hope we find something (that will improve human productivity and well-being). But if we do, it’s not anything near enough as a technology to make the Cincinnati Bengals win the Super Bowl.”