Bill Gates works with Swiss fragrance company to make toilets smell better
- 7 years ago
GENEVA — Bill Gates has partnered with a perfume company in Switzerland in an effort to find a way to get rid of the repulsive smell of toilets. The project is aimed at encouraging people in the developing world to use toilets rather than defecate in open areas.
Scientists at Firmenich, a 120-year-old fragrance company, discovered that bad toilet odors are primarily made up of four chemical compounds: indole, butyric acid, p-cresol and dimethyl tri-sulfide.
According to Bill Gates’ blog, Gates Notes, scientists recreated toilet smells using these chemical compounds and tested out which olfactory receptors typically respond to the bad odors.The team then developed a fragrance that can block these receptors. As a result, the bad odor molecules would not be able to bind to the blocked receptors, and consequently the brain would not receive the signal that triggers the perception of the bad smells. Instead, the brain would only identify a floral scent created by the fragrance.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been supporting initiative focused on creating better toilets for the developing world for the past few years, including the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge in 2012.
Scientists at Firmenich, a 120-year-old fragrance company, discovered that bad toilet odors are primarily made up of four chemical compounds: indole, butyric acid, p-cresol and dimethyl tri-sulfide.
According to Bill Gates’ blog, Gates Notes, scientists recreated toilet smells using these chemical compounds and tested out which olfactory receptors typically respond to the bad odors.The team then developed a fragrance that can block these receptors. As a result, the bad odor molecules would not be able to bind to the blocked receptors, and consequently the brain would not receive the signal that triggers the perception of the bad smells. Instead, the brain would only identify a floral scent created by the fragrance.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been supporting initiative focused on creating better toilets for the developing world for the past few years, including the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge in 2012.