Not since the Summer of Love

I can't smell chlorine in the pool water.

I can remember as a very young kid, circa mid 1960's, piling into the car with my brother and older
sister, mother would drive into town from our farm. The scene was a sunny day, an outdoor pool
packed with kids. I was too young too swim, my sister would do that. But I can remember the smell of
the pool. The scent was in the air a city block away, before the pool came into view. Right up close
it was an overpowering smell.

I decided to become a lap swimmer just nigh of my 40th birthday. In the intervening years I was in a
pool only a few times. When I started I could just barely detect the smell of chlorine. But now, a
few years later, I lap swim almost every day, sometimes in different pools, and I can not detect any
whiff of chlorine via my nose.

Does one lose his olfactory sense as one gets older? Does the sense of smell fade like hearing
and sight?

As a rough kind of a control experiment, I have this to add. I have baked bread since I was in my
twenties and going foward. I like the way home baked bread toasts up. I have always been a daily
brown bagger. But starting a few years ago, just about the same time that I picked up lap swimming,
39 years old, I started to lose the ability to smell the bread baking inside the oven. It is usually
a strong, redolant kick to the nose, a loaf baking in the oven. Right now I can barely detect the
baking scent that I remember as being so full of anticipation.

I guess it is a drag getting old.

But hear is the final funny point. And it is the way I look. At the gym, in the locker room,
invariable, the first question I get asked is "Do you lift weights?" No, I have never lifted free
weights or hit the weight room machines. Then I will bait the person asking the question, young guy
or old, "How old do you think I am?" Most recent a young guy says 24. I am
44. Their facial expression is always the same, dropped jaw.

So I may look young, but I have lost my sense of detecting chlorine in pool water. I can smell it in
a bleach bottle. And I can smell when people put too much hair spray or cologne. And halitosis.
Maybe I am like the hearing tester, a few high or low frequencies have dropped out, the the rest of
the spectrum is fine.

Wishing you all a fine pool scent on the skin apres-swim.

Just like with background sounds, your brain filters out background smells that it is used to.

"Rob Mohr" <robmohr@earthnet.net> wrote in message
news:7cb4bcb1.0309010635.65f11a4a@posting.google.com...
> I can't smell chlorine in the pool water.
>
> I can remember as a very young kid, circa mid 1960's, piling into the car with my brother and
> older sister, mother would drive into town from our farm. The scene was a sunny day, an outdoor
> pool packed with kids. I was too young too swim, my sister would do that. But I can remember the
> smell of the pool. The scent was in the air a city block away, before the pool came into view.
> Right up close it was an overpowering smell.
>
> I decided to become a lap swimmer just nigh of my 40th birthday. In the intervening years I was in
> a pool only a few times. When I started I could just barely detect the smell of chlorine. But now,
> a few years later, I lap swim almost every day, sometimes in different pools, and I can not detect
> any whiff of chlorine via my nose.
>
> Does one lose his olfactory sense as one gets older? Does the sense of smell fade like hearing
> and sight?
>
> As a rough kind of a control experiment, I have this to add. I have baked bread since I was in my
> twenties and going foward. I like the way home baked bread toasts up. I have always been a daily
> brown bagger. But starting a few years ago, just about the same time that I picked up lap
> swimming, 39 years old, I started to lose the ability to smell the bread baking inside the oven.
> It is usually a strong, redolant kick to the nose, a loaf baking in the oven. Right now I can
> barely detect the baking scent that I remember as being so full of anticipation.
>
> I guess it is a drag getting old.
>
> But hear is the final funny point. And it is the way I look. At the gym, in the locker room,
> invariable, the first question I get asked is "Do you lift weights?" No, I have never lifted free
> weights or hit the weight room machines. Then I will bait the person asking the question, young
> guy or old, "How old do you think I am?" Most recent a young guy says 24. I am
> 44. Their facial expression is always the same, dropped jaw.
>
> So I may look young, but I have lost my sense of detecting chlorine in pool water. I can smell it
> in a bleach bottle. And I can smell when people put too much hair spray or cologne. And halitosis.
> Maybe I am like the hearing tester, a few high or low frequencies have dropped out, the the rest
> of the spectrum is fine.
>
> Wishing you all a fine pool scent on the skin apres-swim.

Lemme ask you to try an experiment:

After swimming, shower with water only (no soap/no shampoo). Then, before you go to bed, shower
again at home. Can you smell the chlorine aroma coming off your skin?

If you can; you are fine. If not, then you might consider getting evaluated by a neurologist. I
doubt that it's anything important, but there are some weird, far out possibilities that probably do
deserve to be checked out.

Larry Weisenthal

Certitude is poison; curiosity is life

Rob Mohr <robmohr@earthnet.net> wrote:
>So I may look young, but I have lost my sense of detecting chlorine in pool water. I can smell it
>in a bleach bottle. And I can smell when people put too much hair spray or cologne. And halitosis.
>Maybe I am like the hearing tester, a few high or low frequencies have dropped out, the the rest of
>the spectrum is fine.

Perhaps chorlination levels were higher when you were young?
--
Jason O'Rourke www.jor.com

Jason O'Rourke wrote:
> Rob Mohr <robmohr@earthnet.net> wrote:
>
>>So I may look young, but I have lost my sense of detecting chlorine in pool water. I can smell it
>>in a bleach bottle. And I can smell when people put too much hair spray or cologne. And halitosis.
>>Maybe I am like the hearing tester, a few high or low frequencies have dropped out, the the rest
>>of the spectrum is fine.
>
>
> Perhaps chorlination levels were higher when you were young?

Recently (May 2003), I read that a research proved that gases from chlorine evaporation cause asthma
and bronquial-constriction in kids and swimmers highly exposed.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/...801475226.html

And about the olfactive disfuntion: Rob have no doubt it is also because of the chlorine. I myself
have the same symptoms (loss of smelling and even tasting some foods) specillay in winter: swimming
in a in-door pool, warm water and hot ambient with poor ventilation.

If you can, choose a ozone sanitized pool.

Hope it helps,

Jordi Bataller Spain