From: "Macdonald Stainsby" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

Subject: [R-G] "Odor bomb" in works


AP. 6 January 2002. Military Asks Researchers for Help Develop 'odor
Bomb' Foul Enough to Clear Crowds.

PHILADELPHIA -- A group of scientists are experimenting with the worst
smells imaginable to help the military develop an "odor bomb" so foul it
could clear crowds.

"What they would be interested in is something to keep people out of
certain areas," said Pamela Dalton, a researcher at the
Philadelphia-based Monell Chemical Senses Center. "We are going for
odors that every culture has experienced and the experience is
negative."

The Pentagon asked Monell to help develop the stinky but non-lethal
weapon. The center's work on putrid odors was reported in the Jan. 7
issue of Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the
American Chemical Society.

About 50 Monell researchers are probing human pheromones, inquiring
about food cravings or sniffing body odors. Dalton's job is to
investigate what odors offend people.

"Whether people are born with preferences for odors or whether it is
learned, we don't know," said Dalton.

Researchers have looked for odors that produced a negative reaction in
all cultures, such as human waste, rotting animal flesh and garbage.

They focused on biological odors, believing they were most likely to be
recognized, Dalton said.

Dalton cautioned that the military could be a long way from developing
such an offensive weapon, and that scientists are still trying to work
out some bugs.

"How do you contain these odors until you are ready to use them?" she
asked.


-------------------------------------------
Macdonald Stainsby
Rad-Green List: Radical anti-capitalist environmental discussion.
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
----
Leninist-International: Building bridges in the tradition of V.I. Lenin.
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
----
In the contradiction lies the hope.
                                     --Bertholt Brecht



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