Your Nose Knows….

Experts have claimed that the sense of smell in animals and humans may be stronger than all the other five senses. Think how a bag of peppers in the car beside you would make you rush to the nearest barbecue stand. Smell stimulates memory, uplifts the spirits, heals illnesses (aromatherapy and smelling salts), and strongly affects productivity. The Kabbalah says smell is the most penetrating pathway to the soul.

So, how would a “new car” smell find its way to our soul?       

The “new car scent” has penetrated the market as air freshener products.  Intrigued by some of these, I tested each, shortly sniffing it one by one, as I searched for that “spot-on” brand new smell.  Although all of them fell short of emitting the exact smell of a new car, one succeeded in causing waves of nostalgia in my “soul” as it brought me back to the days of the blue cardboard pine tree-looking air freshener that my Dad placed on the rearview mirror of his VW Bug.

One remembers, too, the exact exciting moment when a balikbayan box was opened after a long journey by sea, land, and air. The love spilling out of it in garments smelled like a new car, as well.

The new-car smell obviously makes one feel loved, cherished, wealthy. It is the smell of money, shiny objects, and leather – the honeymoon stage before the reality of barbecue stains and dirty linen asserts itself.

So, who cares that the smell is simply a combination of organic compounds in the vehicle’s interior, as Wiki explains? Anything that is vinyl or plastic, the foam lamination on the seat surface, the plastic on the dash or on the door panel, is made of the “volatile organic compounds” causing that smell.

Today's cars now use tremendous amounts of plastics in auto manufacturing. They make up approximately about 50 percent of the construction of new cars today. Of course, plastics are durable, cheap, and pliable.

Your dashboard, gauges, seats, switches, air conditioner vents, door handles, floor mats, seat belts, airbags and many other parts are all made from different types of Volatile Organic Compounds. These compounds emit that distinctive smell our cilia pick up as the “new car scent.”

In addition to the dashboard parts, many of the tiny parts inside the engine, such as the handle on the oil dipstick, are also made of plastic. Because of their lightweight nature, plastics are being increasingly used in body structures and in engines during automotive manufacturing.

Volatile Organic Compounds are everywhere. Household products from paints to cleaning products to appliances all emit these gasses. They're normally found in low concentrations in indoor air.  In the car, petroleum-based solvents in plastic and vinyl contain these gasses especially in the adhesives used to fuse interior automotive materials together. These Organic Compounds escape from the dash and the seats because it easily evaporates. This explains why it gradually dissipates through time.

But are these safe? According to Wikipedia, some Volatile Organic Compounds are dangerous to human health or cause harm to the environment.  Anthropogenic Volatile Organic Compounds or human made compounds are regulated by law, especially indoors, where concentrations are the highest. Harmful Volatile Organic Compounds are typically not acutely toxic especially at low concentrations; exposure to high concentrations, though, would have a compounding long-term health effect. But because the concentrations are usually low and the symptoms slow to develop, research into Volatile Organic Compounds and their effects has not been deemed necessary.

But, hey, how can it be wrong when it seems so right? So, go ahead, and let the aroma of “new car” in your brand new car as well as from air fresheners elevate you to greater heights.