Some people* are genetically unable to smell (i.e., they’re anosmic to) one or both of the two BO heavies: 3-methyl-2-hexanoic acid and androstenone. “Have you ever been on an elevator with someone and wondered, ‘How can he come on here smelling like that?’ Well, he may be anosmic to his odor,” Leyden says. “And those of you who have never experienced that, you may be one of those people on the elevator that everyone’s wondering about.”
