Is it unhealthy to smell plastic? for Questionland Seattle

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Is it unhealthy to smell plastic?

I like the smell of plastic, probably because of all those plastic childhood toys, but is it bad to take a sniff? Should it be avoided for any reason? I mean of course I'm not huffing on plastic toys, but are plastic fumes or smells toxic?

Kristin Bell asked in Other Health & Fitness 7 months ago | Report

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So long as it's not on fire, dear - smell away. I love me some green army men plastic smell myself.

RacerX answered in Other Health & Fitness 7 months ago | Report

2 comments by sanguisuga and O my captain…

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Mine is a brand-new box of Crayola crayons. Has to be Crayola. Sometimes when I'm in Target I'll run and have a sniff before checking out...

sanguisuga commented 7 months ago | Report

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Ewww... pre-sniffed Crayolas...I feel so...used...

O my captain commented 6 months ago | Report

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Russ Campbell, NWEBS

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The sense of smell circuitry is so closely associated with how we lay down memory that often a familiar scent can immediately bring back distant memories and experiences from highly emotional experiences (good and bad).

A whiff of a particular perfume, a familiar home scent and for me the smell of the ocean air when I am within a few miles of reaching the stretch of barrier island beach I grew up on can bring on a calmness of being.

Those chemicals that boil off of pliable plastic sheeting (like in blow up pool toys) or other soft toys could easily be the trigger to your memories of happy childhood. It doesn't really require you to breathe it constantly to have the reaction, just a short experience should be enough.

Is it dangerous? Like you said, I wouldn't huff the concentrated smell but if you don't have any overt allergic response to it I don't see any harm to letting a whiff of it bring back distant memory. Hey, car manufacturers have been attracting new car buyers for years with that "new car smell" that freshly installed carpeting, upholstery and plastic headliners and dashes emit.

Certainly there are people with multiple chemical sensitivities that could not expose themselves to such vapors but I trust you know your own reactions to such things. If you are finding you have emotional, psychological disturbances, or other adverse symptoms or signs after this kind of exposure (let's say over a 24 hour period afterward) be careful.

Russ Campbell, NWEBS answered in Other Health & Fitness 7 months ago | Report

2 comments by O my captain and Russ Campbell, NWEBS…

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For years, I had heard that when a woman buys perfume, she rubs a bit on her wrist, so that it combines with her own natural scent, and becomes something unique. This always puzzled me, because as far as I knew as a kid, women had no scent.
Now, recognising how smells are linked to memory, the strategy becomes more clear.
Do you think there's anything to this?

O my captain commented 6 months ago | Report

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Oh, definitely yes!

Though sometimes discounted in humans (in error, I believe) the rest of the world's animal life uses chemical communication (scent and pheromones) so why would we be any different.

We do all have an individual chemistry and different levels of bacteria and such that live on our skin (and inside of us) that affect that. Haven't you heard a person say how they can't wear a particular perfume because it disappears in a short period of time (their body chemistry negates its effect) or worse yet it doesn't smell appealing after it has been on them. Then other perfumes seem to become ever so much more appealing after being on a particular person's skin. Smelling the raw perfume at the bottle may not be the scent you remember from a partner that wore it in your past as their chemistry changed it to something a bit different.

Males of some animal's like ungulates (deer and multiple stomached grazing animals) inspect the readiness of their harem females by smelling their hindquarters or urine output and hold there heads up in the air with a particular open mouth posture known as a Flehmen response or Flehmen display. This is seen in cat species and others as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flehmen_response

http://cats.about.com/od/amyshojai/a/Flehmen-Aka-Flehmen-Response.htm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/400k/3043692965/

http://uglyoverload.blogspot.com/2009/05/behold-flehmen-response.html

The posture is to used to expose special scent glands in the back of the soft palate near the nasal plate of the roof of the cavity called volmeronasal or Jacobson's organ.

Try smelling your partner sometime with a slightly open mouth taking in air through your mouth as well as your nose and see if you don't perceive a greater depth of scent.

BTW, I have been told the reason perfume is applied to the wrists and neck (other places as well) is because these spots are where the skin mechanically pulses with the heartbeat and therefore cause the scent to be mechanically pulsed away from the body.

Russ Campbell, NWEBS commented 6 months ago | Report

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