EFFECTS OF ODOR CAUSING AGENTS

Do not allow the nuisance or possible ill and even nerve/sensory cell damaging effects of gas odors to remain present in your home. Unknown to you and what many believe to be normal concentrations of air gas components in the home are clearly a health problem. Exposure to some of these common yet unacceptable odor producing gasses can and will damage your sense of smell if not removed quickly. Ventilate immediately and call our indoor environmental expert to perform an indoor environmental assessment and investigation. Other gases may be odorless and cause a similar response. When it comes to certain gases comoomly found in the home we and science know that 50% of the population will detect or respond to gas odors where others can not smell or sense it at all due (but may taste it) to sensory adapataion or  desensitization due to long term exposure. (Scientific Note: nearly all gases and odors are produced by biologicals during respiration, fermentation or related cell lysis being fungal in origin (taxonomically- mold like).

Open windows on a summers's day will at times invite the aroma of blossoming roses, neighbor's barbecue, automobile gas emissions and others that are generally transient in nature; that is just, passing through. These types of odors are not unexpected and due to their temporal nature, not a problem. Odor investigations are called for when the odors are unexpected, uncommon and their origins unknown, considered to be a nuisance, are persistent, and certainly when they are irritating and even worse when they become totally unbearable causing noxious or toxic type responses in humans typically resulting in sinus related headache that goes undiagnosed by the physician.

HEADACHE DUE TO NEUROVASCULAR DIALATION

THE HUMAN SENSE OF SMELL

Humans have the ability to discern over 50,000 and more different odors (Table I). Your sense of smell is stimulated from foreign molecules coming into contact with the olfactory receptor cells. These molecules are generally gaseous and organic in nature as in the case of the respiration of bacteria or fermentation of fungi. In other cases they are a result of a gaseous chemical release or a reaction between two more chemicals.

 

EFFECTS  OF PROLONGED EXPOSURE TO ODORS Prolonged exposure to odors from many organic gases may result in damage to the olfactory cells and your sense of smell. In other cases such exposure can aggravate asthma, trigger other respiratory reactions, cause skin irritation, result in tearing of eyes and other unexplained  reactions. This can even happen when these gases are present and MAY BE ODORLESS to the individuals exposed to them.

INDOOR ODOR INVESTIGASTIONS

We are often called to investigate for the presence of fungal mold and mold like odors only to later determine there is no mold at all. There are almost an unlimited amount of odors and their causes that are detectable by humans. Descriptions such as moldy, putrid decaying and related (TABLE I) are commonly the result of non mold chemical activity and interactions.

We very often see people that claim to smell an odor that others in the home do not. In nearly every case that person has a fully working olfactory system that has not been compromised or adapted from previous exposures.  This is typical when that person enters a habitation for the first time and in the first few weeks. In time they too become fully adapted to the odors. This is highly dependent on the substance that is causing the odor and the levels of its presence.

NOTE: Many Noxious and Toxic Gasses may be ODORLESS to You!

Indoor Environmental Sciences Institute employs a full suite of scientific protocols and related technologies to assist in identifying these odors employing the most advanced and objective means of determining the origin, cause and composition of these odors with the ultimate goal of restoring the habitable environment to normalcy.