ABSTRACT

The sense of smell, besides being essential for the enjoyment of food and contributing to various aspects of quality of life, serves the sentinel function of warning the organism of dangerous elements in the air. Hence, damage to this system is of considerable consequence. Among the causes of such damage is exposure to volatile toxic chemicals, most commonly in industrial environments. Unfortunately, it is often difficult to establish a causal relationship between such exposure and dysfunction. This is due, in part, to the paucity of sound research concerning the effects of specific chemical agents on the ability to smell.