Anosmia Awareness

What is anosmia?

anosmia: the loss of the sense of smell, either total or partial. It may be caused by head injury, infection, or blockage of the nose.

Why is this important to me?

To put it simply, I suffer from anosmia. I find myself telling people that I’m “smell blind”. I can’t smell when people fart and I can’t smell cookies in the oven. Nothing. And yes, I’ve been this way my whole life.

There’s been increased interest in understanding the nuances of olfaction in recent years thanks to — you guessed it! Covid.

Historically, since anosmia affects very few people there hasn’t been as much research done in this area compared to the other senses. Now, as numbers climb of people reporting hyposmia (a reduced sense of smell) due to Covid exposure…the spotlight is on olfaction.

Being a lifelong anosmic is a bit different that what those with long Covid experience. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve accidentally turned on the wrong stovetop burner only to find 10 minutes later my smoke alarms are going off. Or how many pounds of food I’ve had to throw away ‘just in case’ it was going bad. With a single whiff you ‘smell normies’ are able to discern whether something is likely safe to eat or not.

It’s my dream to be able to smell. I’d love nothing more than to smell a rose. If nothing else, I’d love to be able to discern when something stinks or not. It would be a life-changing experience for me.

The good news is that there is much discussion about this subject area over the past couple years. There are people working on creating smell detector devices. There are teams with technology that will allow the gamer to experience the scents of games, TV shows and more.

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I’ve been fortunate to have linked up with the Osmocosm Foundation, a non-profit focused on the understanding, treatment, and preventing human ailments through research on basic and applied olfaction. The foundation was founded by leading industry expert, Dr. Andreas Mershin who is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research and the resulting technologies are used by industry and government and have been globally covered by CNN, BBC, NYT, Discovery Channel, Wired, New Scientist, Nature and Science.

They produce an annual conference which brings together the brightest minds (from researchers to engineers to designers) to discuss innovation in the world of olfaction.

I’ve now resigned from my position as the Director of Fundraising + Sponsorships to devote time towards other things but I gained a lot from the year I spent involved with the organization.

The added perk of meeting with key innovators in the space who have the capacity to develop the technology to help me and others like me keeps me going. I’ve found that many experts in this space don’t realize just how dramatic of an effect repurposing their technology to help those suffering with smell loss would have — and I’ve helped change that. I do plan on returning to this space as time allows down the line.

If you’re visiting my page as a result of my work with the foundation, thank you. Hopefully one day soon I’ll be able to smell that rose — or at least have a gadget at my disposal that will save many pounds of food waste. ✌️

Watch my Osmocosm 2023 presentation below!

Below is my first presentation at Osmocosm 2022.

This type of thing makes it all worthwhile 🥹