But her sensitivity to smell means she is unable to enter the cleaning products aisle in supermarkets. To most people, the plastic packaging has no odour; to Joy, it is so intense she starts to retch.
Is that even remotely true that people can't smell that aisle? I don't think I have an extraordinary sense of smell and I think of the smell of that aisle as "rank" or something like that.
I think that distinction in the text was not the intended point. With 'the plastic' they mean the products, not the plastic packaging. Because of it was the packaging, made of common materials, entire supermarkets would be off limits.
And no, I don't think most people feel no smell in the cleaning aisle.
I guess they mean that most people can smell freshly sprayed cleaning products but think the products don't smell of much when still in the bottles.
The aisle has a faintly bleachy/detergenty smell to me, but not usually oppressive, more just pleasantly clean, I suppose.
But I have noticed my hands/sweat smell different when I have a cold, and sometimes a day or two before I feel ill. I usually only get close enough to notice it on my own body, but I have a couple of times entered someone else's room/office and smelt the same smell before hearing confirmation from their croaky voice, snuffling, or them just telling me they have a cold.
(And no, it's not the smell of cough sweets or lemon/honey-based cold remedies, but it might be partly the smell of damp tissues and stale phlegm and other such nice things. Subtle but sickly sweet.)
Obviously this is neither particularly useful nor a superpower, but I'm glad research is going on into more useful applications of similar phenomena.
It's interesting that she's not becoming de-sensitized to all the smells. I think we all have the capability to discriminate between many colors, smells, sounds, etc, but most people normally would de-sensitize and filter out the noise over time.
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1107030/dementia...