Lack of personal hygiene a cause for concern for LRT users

 

GROPING hands, secondary smoking and rude, loud passengers are part and parcel of using local public transport.

But here comes another peril in the form of body odour, especially when said transport is filled with sweaty bodies jostling each other for space.

In a succinctly worded yet hilarious complaint, netizen Zac on X said that people who wear hoodies in LRT stations have a habit of not washing their clothes. 

Pesanan pada yang suka pakai hoodies dlm LRT,

Boleh tak korang at least basuh Hoodies tu?

Byk jumpa org berhoodies naik LRT ni bau kepam.

Dan para lelaki, tolong lh pakai deodorant, kalau tak boleh bau tengit ketiak bila hangpa angkat tgn nak pegang handle esp peak hour.

— Zac (@ZacZakirin13) August 22, 2024

Apparently, the poor fella had many encounters with hoodie-wearers that smelled terrible. To the male hoodie wearers, Zac pleaded to them to apply deodorant less their armpits would smell when they raised their hands to hold the handle during peak hours.

Not unlike him, many netizens echoed their concerns regarding this topic. Some even came up with hygiene tips to resolve the matter once and for all. 

Netizen bfatin suggested that the hoodie wearers can shave their armpit hairs while the original poster Zac went so far as to suggest they pluck them out.

According to another netizen, baking soda could be substituted with over-the-counter body powder. She claimed that the substance is not only chemical-free but has the ability to completely eliminate the smell.

In a Too Much Information fashion, she claimed that some people said baking powder could brighten up the armpit.

Netizen put said these hoodie wearers have high confidence. He further expressed wonderment at their ability to resist the smell of their own bodies. Either that or they have lost their sense of smell.

It is not known whether netizen put is making a joke or not, but put’s comment raised a vital point.

A little research done towards the subject suggests that these hoodie wearers might not be aware that they are creating discomfort towards the other passengers in public transports.

According to Monell Chemical Senses Center psychologist Pamela Dalton, the human nose helps us quickly detect things that are new and strange.

However, it had no use for the boring and typical. That’s where more long-term loss of sensitivity comes in.

“Although we can indeed smell our own odours, a quick sniff of the underarm will bear this out. Over time, we become desensitised to our particular scent,” said Duke University molecular neurobiologist Hiroaki Matsunami to Livescience.

“The same is true of any smell we routinely encounter,” such as perfume or the inside of our house,” he said, adding that this process is known as odour fatigue.

Dalton further cautioned that if a person catches a sudden whiff of bad smell originating from his or her body, then the smell will be even stronger to strangers.

But back to the topic raised by Zac, is it really necessary to wear a hoodie in a country that experiences summer 24/7?

With the tropical climate and humid temperature, hoodies could be a portable sauna a person wears on his body.

Unless these hoodie wearers have every intention to burn some calories by sweating it out, they are walking stink bombs waiting to ruin the day of every passenger in a peak-hour public transport. – Focus Malaysia