Remembering the scents: Rubber bags, soaps

Fond memories indeed. The unmistakable odor that was an integral part of my childhood enema ritual that would evoke both fear and excitement. As I opened the bathroom door the smell was immediate and drew my focus to the sink full of hot soapy water and the rubber bulb, or to the bulging bag with the long hose and black nozzle hanging on the robe hook next to the toilet. Memories.

To paraphrase a quote from a movie, I love the smell of soapy rubber in the morning...it smells like ecstasy.

My memories of the family enema bag was the one my aunt had (actually she had two). When one of them was not hanging in her bathroom drying from frequent use, they were kept in her linen closet. They had a distinctive rubber smell that will immediately bring me back to childhood. The rubber along with the sheets smell starts my engines. The sight of a bar of Ivory soap always jars my memory. Also the old fashioned glass jars of Vaseline also makes my memory go wild. Some of the enemas she gave me were so soapy you could smell the Ivory soap as soon as she entered the bedroom especially if she used the open top enema bag. I remember it vividly. It came in a white case with a picture of the Eiffel Tower on it. The bag itself was amber latex almost see through with a reinforced grey rubber top. It had an amber rubber hose with a metal snap clamp and came with two white nozzles. One rectal and the other douche. The other enema bag she had was a blue looks like an ice bag. It had a white screw top and one cover was just a cover and the other one had a nipple to attach the white hose. The nozzles were also white in color. The bag could be hung upside down when using it for a enema. When she prepared enemas, they ALWAYS had bubbles coming from the top of the open top bag. I MISS those smells and days.

Our bathroom growing up had 2 distinct aromas: Ivory soap for enemas and that unknown purpose of that mystical yellow jar of Massengill resting on the toilet bowl tank cover.

Oh yes, the smell of Ivory soap, the smell of a red rubber enema bag! Have you kissed your enema bag today? hahah - my Vet would ask "have you kissed your cat today?" and while I do kiss the top of his head, I also admit to kissing my enema bag, and so ask "Have you kissed your enema bag today?".... laugh at me if you will..

What causes a smell, any smell, from anything, is volatile organic compounds. or VOCs

No VOC emissions, no smell.

So many of us use equipment that has been in the world longer than we have. It has become so stable after this long that there is no more VOC emission from it

What causes a smell, any smell, from anything, is volatile organic compounds. or VOCs

No VOC emissions, no smell.

So many of us use equipment that has been in the world longer than we have. It has become so stable after this long that there is no more VOC emission from it

Incorrect!

What "causes" smell in humans is having receptors in the olfactory (nerves) that cause and electrochemical stimulus response that we sense as smell. Although we have have many receptors that are sensitive to certain organic compounds, we do not smell all volatile organic compounds. And there are a couple of examples of inorganic compounds that we respond to like ammonia, chlorine, bromine, and even salt (from a salt water enema). And some gases (fluorine, tetrafluoroethylene, hexafluoropropylene) are so reactive that you would be very unlikely to ever detect whether a smell exists as it it reacts nearly explosively in the atmosphere and other gases that react with water to produce another gas. With the exception of fluorine, all of these are volatile and organic.

No receptors, no smell. We don't know whether some things we call odorless are really odorless. We simply lack the receptors to respond and then to determine the presence of a "smell." Does oxygen have a smell? We don't know. How about nitrogen? We don't know. Only the inert gases (e.g., helium, argon, neon, etc.) that do not react with any other element would be expected to be truly odorless.

Are the non-inert odorless compounds really odorless or is that we just don't have the receptors to smell nitrogen, oxygen, ozone, carbon monoxide? An analogous situation is "light." We see a narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum even though there is clearly something else there.

And, for those compounds we can detect, there is a lower detection threshold. Once below the threshold, they may still be present, but not at a level that causes stimulus/response or they trigger a different "smell" response. Some compounds we have extreme sensitivity to like most lighter mercaptans (that are used to odorize methane, propane, and butane where detection thresholds are measured in fractions of a part per billion) and some amine compounds (cadaverine comes to mind). Others we are familiar with like skatole (a crystalline solid with a distinct odor but no vapor pressure).

LisaK is incorrect on many things about enemas!!! Maybe she should stop doing them. I think the water or solutions are going between her ears.

Hey, ER,

Interesting small treatise on olfaction you posted. A small point, but I'm a retired physician at 67 still interested in science (you thought it was only enemas and sneakers, eh?). I was under the impression that even if Lisa's not correct about all odors being VOC's, I thought that for any smell to occur, in fact at least a few molecules from the smelled object or compound had to physically make it up into our noses/brains and interact with the receptors thus producing "smell." Is that correct?

Thanks,

Eric

Human Nose Can Detect a Trillion Smells! Would believe, I'd never have guessed - https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/03/human-nose-can-detect-trillion-smells

I always though we were not that good at detection, since by comparison dogs are so good at tracking, etc.. Checking the web I see dogs are 40x better than us...

@ericmacson

Yes, enough molecules of a compound that creates the electrochemical stimulation must make it up to the nerve receptors to cause the stimulus response. For example, the odor detection threshold for ammonia is fairly high as a statistical representation. It ranges between 40 ppb up to 53 ppm.

If you don't smell it, it doesn't mean that it isn't present. It just means that not enough of it is present to stimulate a response that you would call a scent or odor. And for some volatile organic compounds, there is no level where you can smell a scent or odor. And that can be dangerous because there is no safe warning odor. Methyl bromide is another example of a dangerous organic that you can't smell and it can kill you if you are sufficiently exposed.

I teach a course on odor detection and characterization.

Ahhh, you teach a course about olfaction. I wondered where your knowledge came from. What exactly is your line of work?

Eric

Eric,

A chemical engineer that works on all things related to air pollution.

Thanks, ER. How many enemas do you take a week, or does that depend on your race schedule? Do you also do some just for enjoyment, unrelated to racing?

Eric

Thanks, ER. How many enemas do you take a week, or does that depend on your race schedule? Do you also do some just for enjoyment, unrelated to racing?

Eric

There's no set schedule. I'm more likely to give myself one or more enemas during my weekends than during the week.

I have a couple of guidelines. No enemas within four hours of departure (true for weekday work schedule, as well). Prior to a high intensity workout, I'll select a lower enema volume and may also make my enema isotonic. Same is true for race day. I may have a normal bowel movement but I may do a sweep clean out enema to make sure the rectum and Sigmoid are clear.

Mostly for pleasure, there are some benefits to the enemas involving my running. Oh yes, I also keep my digest to be mindful of hyponatremia.