Scent Camouflage

I don't use body scents, deodorants or even scented soaps. Because my nose isn't already overwhelmed with those, I can smell the stuff others use from 10' or so when indoors and at a significant distance when I'm downwind, like dozens of yards/meters. I can detect when a tobacco user has been in the restroom within the past 30-60 minutes at work. I can smell a tobacco user at 100 yards upwind from me, even when they aren't actively smoking, and tobacco smoke at 1/4 mile.

A large part of this "ability" is that I live in a rural area and am not constantly exposed to the odors of a town or city.

Definitely true.

When we trained with the Royal Thai Marine Corps, they always found our position because they could smell us, early in the training. We sweated "American" food sweat and they could smell our American cigarettes on our clothing.

Then, when we started eating and living off the local food and smoking the local cigarettes, etc., we were more able to blend in with the "local" smells.

We had a lot of Vietnam vets who told us the same thing. The Force Recon guys would get locked up in a compound for at least 2 weeks prior to missions deep in country and eat nothing but Vietnamese food, so they smelled like the locals when they were in the jungle.

This is known as "Sexual chemistry" www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200712/scents-and-sensibility

This is true for all mammals and humans happen to be just mammals after all.

Different scents indicate different immune systems. So men and women are attracted by a potential partner of a different scent since this reduces the chance of genetic defects of the offspring and gives the offspring a much greater chance to have a strong immune system.

During pregnancy, the female rather hates the scent of her mate seeking protection and shelter of her own family which also protects her more from diseases her husband may carry and is immune to but not the woman and her unborn baby.

And this just doesn't stop at who you need to mate best to safe your own species, it also works to make out potential rivals you need to hate to protect your species.

Here's a good site I found in a hurry. Links to science articles I had read on this topic won't be good enough since they are not in the English language. Also most are in magazines in my cellar.
www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200712/scents-and-sensibility

They can - that doesn't mean "they can't".

Caucasians and Asians - even sharing the same canteen do have a different scent and this was the point in Vietnam. Asians tend to have a lactase deficit which makes their body chemistry a lot different - not just by the food they consume.

Afro-Caribbeans and Afro-Asians are fully compatible in scent. It has nothing to do with the colour of the skin or how they look. Some (only a few combinations of) ethnic groups just smell a lo different to each other and this can have a major subconscious effect. And Vietnam just had happened to be a prime example of "smelling the enemy".

c64; All the research I've done does NOT back up your claims that different ethnic groups inheriently smell differently. Where there is a difference between groups it can be traced down to diet and an individuals lifestyle.

With zero evidence backing up the claim I will now have to put on the mod hat and ask you to stop making such claims.

Look up "body odor" on wikipedia. The info provided suggests that genetics, with race being an obvious part of that, does indeed have an effect on body odor. Specifically, it's mentioned that asians have fewer apocrine glands, responsible for producing sweat, than other races. You can't deny that the reduced ability to produce sweat has an impact on body odor.

Here's another source that comes to the conclusion that there's a difference in BO by race for the very same reason that the wiki page gives: digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=nexus

BTW, I'm having difficulty understanding how pointing out obvious, fact based racial differences without passing any kind of judgement on them can be concidered racist? I know race can be a touchy subject under certain circumstances, but let's not make it out to be under ALL circumstances. There's touchy and then there's hysteria. Let's try to differentiate between the two. After all, we can't run away from the fact that we're different.

As long as no one is being deliberately offensive, I can't see the problem.

There are times and places to bring up and mention racism. This topic wasn't one of them. It had no bearing on the discussion at hand.

I am the one who initially brought up C64 comment to CM's attention, but I guess I wasn't clear in my intent.

I've seen way to many discussions derailed, because someone wants to inappropriately throw the racism word into the mix.

That's what I saw, so I brought it CM's attention. I failed to explain myself thoroughly enough and for that I apologize. I have since explained myself to CM and to C64.

I apologize for the disruption to the topic, that I caused.

The kind of dog matters a lot. E.g. there is only one breed of dogs which can detect epilepsies a minute before it strikes urging their master to brace.

Training has come a long way in the last eighty some years. There have been several instances of dogs not only identifying individuals, but groups of individuals. I reckon that if I can notice the difference then so can dogs.