Can A Smell Kill You?

[AlexIsHere13]

Could a smell be so bad that the smell itself and the smell alone would kill you?

[Ann]

Isn't there a huge plant which flowers only every hundred or so years that is really lethal?

[Prudie]

Smelling toxic fumes might or having a heart attack but not the smell alone. That might get you a slap at times.

[Old_Geezer]

I supect smells only affect the olfactory system and your mental reaction to it. Smell isn't going to kill directly unless your mental state uses it to trigger something.

Of course if you smell poisonous gas that's another matter.

[Peter Pedant]

if you wonder if there air born poisons then the answer is yes
( cyanide spring to mind)

what about hydrogen sulphide ? smells like bad eggs
is toxic in itself and could kill by oxygen exclusion

phosphine ( PH3) that is one up from ammonia NH3 is pretty toxic - there is a scene from this in Breaking Bad which gives you an excuse to look at them all again.

Group V elements all form hydrides which smell pretty foul and are toxic
Stibine SbH3 and arsine AsH3 - the last one could give you and your frenz hours of innocent amusement....

[Peter Pedant]

OG most of the modern poison gasses are odourless or sweetish

I agree the first to be used Chlorine wasnt

[AlexIsHere13]

NOT a toxic gas that happens to smell bad, but a smell alone.

[Old_Geezer]

Definitely not the smell then, then Peter.

[Peter Pedant]

no

( there isnt a smell that can kill you by smell alone - as OG says you are hard wired so that doesnt happen - Olfactory nerve (I) frontal cortex has no connection with any part of the heart stopping bit or vagus nerve ( X ) hind brain.... )

[Davemano]

Being close to an open mouthed lion and smelling its breath could prove fatal.

[Peter Pedant]

yeah like the vicar of stiffkey ?

he was killed they say by a more conventional method - the lion ate him

[silliemillie]

You're not talking about BO again are you? Or your brothers smelly feet?

[1ozzy]

The aroma would not kill, but, I guess one could gag so badly they choked to death.

[waterboatman]

It depends what is causing the smell. If it's something toxic or poisonous then yes, on the grounds that without the toxins it wouldn't smell.

[EDDIE51]

A smell alone can no more kill you than just looking at something could.

[douglas9401]

I'll be steering well clear of Gorgons after curry night anyway, Eddie.

[aelmpvw]

a look from my doris could kill you eddie ...

[Peter Pedant]

yup it is the smelly feet fella ( agane )

wjy dont teenagers ask something interesting and challenging like:
is the synthesis that Walter White uses in Breaking Bad a go-er or not ?

or - if I buy a barrel of methylamine, will the FBI burst thro my door ? ( yes )

[Peter Pedant]

// a look from my doris could kill you eddie ... //

yeah I bet when Doris smells a rat she means she smells like a rat .....

[mibn2cweus]

I been in circumstances where I've wondered whether mercy killing might be the humane thing to do.

[Peter Pedant]

what for stinky feet ?

clearly Alex brother has gone ..... nose - blind.

Requiem for 2014 - which had a few case histories from the 10-40 thousand gun related deaths - a few of the shooters had shot their siblings for much less than not washing ....( 15 -38 in the UK - no not thousand )

" being there" appeared to be a common one