Interesting story here : http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-08/cp-wel072513.php  on the differences in individuals ability to perceive odors.  Apparently ones ability to sense the smell of various fragrances is a genetic trait. Which isn’t all that surprising unless you have been living under a rock, or use certain outdated mythologies as a basis for your understanding of reality…

For a long time now science has been studying genetic traits and the variances between certain genetic coding and the unique effects brought about by these minute changes in the code. We have known for years about things like hair and eye color, and the gene switches that account for them. Now we know that the sense of smell can be unique between individuals.

Which explains a lot…I don’t know how many times I have had to roam the aisles of various retail stores, and passing by some otherwise normal person, except for the fact they most certainly just took a bath in some foul substance that is probably marketed as perfume. I am talking about a person cloaked in an enormous cloud of stench that trails along behind them akin to that car that we have all seen at one time or another, that was puffing out so much smoke it looked like it was spraying for mosquito’s. We are talking weapon of mass destruction level of offensiveness that lasts for several minutes, sometimes so bad I can still have that smell in my nose in the car on the way home.

I have often wondered if these people had some altered sense of smell issue, even considered a genetic trait being responsible, just never knew for sure. Thing is I still don’t know if its them…or me! I do not know where or even if the standard for normal exists, or if I am in it…but some of us have some serious olfactory issues.