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Comment by derefr | Hacker News Reader

I wonder whether the manufacturer of some existing artificial “fresh breeze” scent happened to already stumble upon a formula that closely approximates the chemical composition of the real thing, without knowing it. Do e.g. (scented) detergents contain these particular hydrocarbons? Does any air freshener?

Also: is there any knowledge of these compounds’ effects on the human body? Are they GRAS? I can imagine an evolutionary just-so story where our bodies like the scent because it tells us that whatever’s emitting the smell has, essentially, been UV-disinfected. But that doesn’t mean that breathing the scent volatiles themselves is good for us. Humans think all sorts of bad-for-us things smell/taste good, like ozone or antifreeze.

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Oh, that’s where the name comes from.

I hang dry most of my laundry in my own house still. I learned to appreciate this after moving from a big city to a town of 13 people. Of course we all had lots of space but my house had one of those circular drying line contraptions. I enjoyed going out and hanging my laundry, even in the cold winters. Even in the snow. The sun and dry air did their thing pretty quickly.

When I lived in Amsterdam my apartment came with a new combo washer/dryer unit. As far as I could tell, it mostly succeeded in compressing the laundry into a really tight, nearly inextricable ball.

In tighter quarters having lots of laundry drying between apartments could be seen as less desirable. There are solutions for that too. But the noise and dirt of lint coming from drying machines is a counter factor to consider.

And the smell of tumble drying. I live in an apartment complex and the smell coming out of the dryer vents is overwhelming. It's not intrinsic; there would barely be any odor at all if people gave up dryer sheets and fabric softener, but it seems like many have never heard anything so outlandish as that.

I spent a couple years living in high density highrises (putting my YIMBY money where my mouth is, I guess) and the laundry exhaust (and other ventilation problems) traveling into my apartment made the air nigh unbreathable.

That's an issue with houses, too. When my neighbor dries clothes, I have to keep my windows closed. Really annoying in hot weather when I need the ventilation.

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