Smelling Triggers

I just read the article on asthmatics having a heightened sense of smell. For years I told my husband that there was mold in our basement. I could SMELL it, especially after a rain. I walk with a walker so I was unable to go downstairs and investigate myself and my husband saw no need to. When he finally went downstairs it was evident that we had a mold problem. Some time later I was house hunting. I entered a very nice brick home with my realtor and immediately said that I wasn’t interested in the house because it had a problem with the basement. My realtor asked how I knew that because he had been down there and hadn’t seen any problem areas. I told him that I could smell the dampness and probably mold as well. He was stunned because he couldn’t detect it. I had to give up grading or even handling my students workbooks because some households had kerosene heaters in their homes while other children lived with someone in their home smoked. Just grading their workbooks would trigger trouble with breathing. I thought I was the only person with this “super power"!