smells

Widely used fragranced products in cleaning agents and laundry detergents–including those that claim to be "green"–give off many chemicals that are not listed on the label, including some that are classified as toxic. Researcher Anne Steinemann says, "We analyzed best-selling products, and about half of them made some claim about being green, organic or natural. Surprisingly, the green products’ emissions of hazardous chemicals were not significantly different from the other products." Art credit: Dreamstime.comread more

New research shows that the smell of male armpit sweat calms women down. Sniffing a lot of it can alter women’s menstrual cycles, so this discovery could be the start of a line of perspiration-derived contraceptives or fertility drugs. “The underarm contains physiologically active pheromones,” explains chemist George Preti. Pheromones are chemicals that affect the brain and alter our sexual behavior.

Female volunteer were exposed to male armpit odor for six hours, masked by perfume, so they wouldn’t consciously notice the smell, while their levels of luteinizing hormone were monitored. More luteinizing hormone is released from the brain as a woman approaches ovulation, and exposure to male armpit odor accelerated the arrival of the hormone.
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