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Our sense of smell is eroding, and Covid-19 is not to be blamed this time!
Exposure to PM2.5 – the collective name for small airborne pollution particles, largely from the combustion of fuels in vehicles, power stations and our homes – has previously been linked with "olfactory dysfunction". However, this olfactory dysfunction has crept its way out of industrial set-up and has crept into everyday lives of people. A researcher, Murugappan Ramanathan Jr, a rhinologist at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, has said, "Our data show there's a 1.6 to 1.7-fold increased [risk of] developing anosmia with sustained particulate pollution," In a survey, the researcher found that the increasing number of patients for ‘anosmia’ were higher in neighbourhoods that reported ‘significantly’ higher levels of PM2.5. One recent study in Brescia, northern Italy, for example, found the noses of teenagers and young adults became less sensitive to smells the more nitrogen dioxide – another pollutant produced when fossil fuels are burned, in particular from vehicle engines – they were exposed to.