A study of 30 young adults (15 males, 15 females), screened to have normal olfaction, measured detection of the flavor of
glutaraldehyde, a
biocide that could occur in disinfected
potable water. Over the range of interest, up to 100 p.p.m., flavor derived from olfactory stimulation. Higher concentrations would cause oral irritation. Fourteen subjects failed to detect the
glutaraldehyde in the first of four sessions of testing. Eight of the 14 (seven males, one female) continued to exhibit the
anosmia throughout testing. The other six (one male, five females) began to detect the material in session two and exhibited increasing sensitivity over sessions two to four. Their average sensitivity never reached that of the 16 subjects who evinced no
anosmia and who also improved their performance over sessions. The combined group of 22 could detect 17 p.p.m. Less thorough testing would have yielded much higher values. Specific
anosmia for this dialdehyde has precedence in
anosmia for various monoaldehydes, most notably
isobutyraldehyde. The positive influence of experience with a material on detection has been found previously, most intriguingly by Wysocki and colleagues, who showed that experience could differentially induce sensitivity to the odorant androstenone and suggested that the phenomenon might occur for other compounds.
Glutaraldehyde appears to be one, perhaps of many.