This is where you actually do your breathing, exchanging carbon dioxide for fresh oxygen.(See diagram). This gas exchange (carbon dioxide for oxygen) is an automatic response. It happens thousands of times in your day, awake or asleep. Your diaphragm, a group of muscles below the lungs, supports breathing by contracting and relaxing. This is where "hiccups" occur. When your respiratory center is upset by something, it may send extra electrical impulses to your diaphragm causing "hiccups".
I can hear you saying, "Well, that's kind of interesting, but what does that have to do with perfume?" Let's start with this: Depending on where you work, shop, or if you use public transportation, your poor respiratory system is assaulted with perfumes and pollutants many times a day.
As you take that deep breath on the bus, the nerve cells lining your airways pick up that perfume or other irritant and send a signal down the line to contract your respiratory muscles. You cough or sneeze. This is unpleasant, but a good thing, because that "bad air" is quickly exhaled from the lungs and your airways. At least, that's the plan. There can come a time, though, when your respiratory system can't keep up with all of the irritants it receives. Some perfumes have been found to go beyond the "irritant" label to "toxic". In 1995, the popular fragrance "Eternity Eau de Parfume" had been tested and found to be toxic to the respiratory tract and nervous system.
Some might argue that our respiratory systems should be used to irritants by now, as we are surrounded by them. There should be some type of immunity we build up by daily exposure. Do we cause ourselves to become more susceptible by making ourselves aware of the irritants? In other words, do some people lean toward hypochondria in some of these areas? Of course. That happens all of the time. I ran across an interesting phrase while I was researching this article. It was "the nocebo effect." The author explains that a "nocebo" is a negative placebo.
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