By Ogova Ondego
Published January 28, 2021
David K cannot go out of the house before spraying himself with at least three brands of deodorant and gargling some mouthwash to get rid of what he refers to as bad breath. The 22-year-old says he washes his mouth and throat to kill the germs that could give his breath a foul smell and repeats the deodorant spraying at regular intervals throughout the 10-hour work day. Smelling good throughout the day, he says, gives him the confidence he needs in his sales and marketing job.
Like many of us whose homes, cars, offices, toilets are filled with air fresheners, deodorisers, disinfectants, pesticides and insect repellents, David K contends that smelling nice is the hallmark of success and living well.
Even though it isn’t overtly stated, it appears manufacturers of deodorants are targeting adolescents who, confused and concerned about body changes and smells as they develop into adults, use deodorants excessively.
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But once the excessive use of deodorants become a habit, it may be difficult to overcome it even in adulthood. David K, like many of us who are obsessed with smelling nice, may be failing to realise that he could be killing himself just to smell good.
Surveys carried out in countries like Britain, according to Daily Mail newspaper, show that ‘Inhaling chemicals from deodorant aerosols can cause skin reactions, aggravate allergies and may trigger fatal heart problems’.
Sandra Walsh highlights the plight of a 16- and a 12-year-olds who collapsed and died in their nice-smelling rooms in 1998 and 2008, respectively,
In the first incident the upstairs room of the 16-year-old Jonathan Capewell was thick with deodorant that his parents said they could smell and taste from downstairs of their home in Oldham, Greater Manchester. The post-mortem results revealed that Capewell had died of a heart attack from the high level of butane and propane gas in his blood which had risen to 10 times beyond the lethal dose.
The coroner conducting the autopsy said Capewell had been so preoccupied with personal hygiene he had sprayed too much in a confined space with limited ventilation.
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The late Capewell’s father, Keith, said his son would spray himself with deo from toe to head but no one knew he could be killed.
“What a price to pay for smelling good,” the father remarked.
The mother said her son was simply putting the deodorant on because he was image-conscious and wanted to smell nice. “Who expects it to kill you? Manufacturers spend all that time and money advertising how exotic their products smell but they don’t do enough to warn you about the dangers.”
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In the second incident, Daniel Hurley was 12 when he collapsed after using spray deodorant in the bathroom of his home in Sandiacre, Nottingham.
The coroner said, according to Walsh, that Hurley ‘s death had been caused by a ‘cardiac arrhythmia,
exacerbated by exposure to solvents’.
Though all aerosol cans carry a warning which say they should be kept out of reach of children and used in a place with good ventilation, experts stress that such cans should be used in fair-sized rooms with open windows.
“I’d like to see warnings on the front of the can, like there are for cigarettes and alcohol. Because we know first hand that deodorants can be just as fatal,” Daily Mail quotes the late Capewell’s father as having said.
According to experts, butane and propane, that are used in deodorants to make them spray, are pressurised in a can that, when sprayed, the deodoriser sticks to the user’s body and the carrier substances escape into the atmosphere where they can be inhaled.
Although not poisonous, these aerosol propellants displace oxygen from the room, replacing it with carbon dioxide which could lead to a speedy death to those occupying it, much like a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) leak can do when its methane and butane gas replace the oxygen in the air.
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How does this happen”
“The main cause of death is usually suffocation, known as hypoxia. If
oxygen is not being breathed in and something else is inhaled, such as chemicals, then suffocation occurs and the heart stops.,” Daily Mail quotes Jonathan Clague, a heart specialist at the Royal Brompton Hospital, as having explained.
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People who are obsessed with smelling nice are said to be suffering from compulsive disorders which make them preoccupied with hygiene. People suffering from schizophrenia and other manic depressions sometimes have such obsessions.
Behavioural scientists say people suffering from olfactory Reference Syndrome, a condition in which victims shun social situations, believe they smell bad and blame themselves for it. They feel shy and self-conscious about their smell.No wonder they are ready to do just about anything to smell nice.
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