Alan, Minneapolis, MN asked:

If I smell something -- bacon, bathroom odors -- am I ingesting it as well?

Answer:

Thanks for the nauseating thought, but fortunately, the answer is no. "When something emits an odor, it's giving off smell molecules that waft into your nostrils," says Scott Stringer, M.D., a professor of otolaryngology at the University of Mississippi medical center. "The molecules fit with receptors in your nose, and when they lock in, you register a smell. You breathe some in, you breathe some out, and that's it." So in other words, you aren't actually ingesting invisible particles of bacon but just the olfactory evidence of the bacon's presence. That said, there are some deadly exceptions to the rule. When you catch a whiff of certain chemicals, such as chlorine or formaldehyde, you're inhaling the actual substance in its gaseous state. Worse, these toxic molecules often don't stop at your schnozz -- they can enter your blood and wreak all sorts of havoc on your nervous system and vital organs.

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