Effect of Smoking on Taste Thresholds for Phenyl-Thio-Carbamide (PTC)

Abstract

In a study of 60 human subjects, characteristic reactions of the taste threshold were noted after the smoking of 2 cigarettes. In 73.3% there was a decrease in tasting ability and in 20% there was an increase. Subjects took various periods of time up to several hrs. to return to the resting threshold. 9 of 10 individuals tested smoking by nose showed no initial change or an initial stimulation followed by depression in tasting ability. As these 9 individuals had all shown an initial depression in mouth smoking, it is concluded that the effect of mouth smoking in the larger no. of cases is, initially, a direct dulling of the taste buds by some product of combustion but that the true effect of nicotine on the nerve apparatus for taste appears to be an initial stimulation followed by depression.