# Do you know the smell of fresh blood? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 10, 2011, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155 "2011-03-10T11:27:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/41 "2011-03-13T02:26:25Z")
Yep. First thing that came to mind was ‘iron’. Gonna read your OP now, instead of subject. ETA: Iron. Whatya know. ---
**Author:** ![heavyarms553](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/779978/32.png) [@heavyarms553](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heavyarms553)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/42 "2011-03-14T21:10:42Z")
> [@](#): > > Do you know of any medical students who had to bail because they couldn’t stop barfing at the vile effluvia that accompanies so much illness? It’s a serious question: we all know about the cliche of people who faint at the sight of blood, but what about the people who hurl at the scent of pus? When I went through anatomy lab, I was actually worried about that happening to me. You do a lot of nasty stuff when you are dissecting a human body, but fortunately I never threw up. I gagged and wretched a few times though. Once when we split the penis, and another time when we chopped a leg off. I also remember grimly appreciating the mortality of man when we cut the head in half to examine the cavernous sinuses. I couldn’t eat steak for quite a while after anatomy lab. Sinew reminded me of the aponeuroses. ---
**Author:** ![ntoombs56\_gmail.com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4bbf92/32.png) [@ntoombs56\_gmail.com](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ntoombs56_gmail.com)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/43 "2011-12-15T06:40:28Z")
My mom and sisters say they can smell blood from across a room. Even when I am having a snuffy nose day they can tell just by being near me. Is there a correlation between the two? My dad and I cannot smell blood at all even when cleaning deer or our own personal injuries. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/44 "2011-12-15T07:16:51Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > I’m rather curious about someone who’s never smelled blood before. Everybody poops and bleeds. I taste my own blood like 5+ times a year. The last time was like a week ago when I flossed my teeth too hard. I’ve tasted it from biting or cutting my lip but I didn’t think it had an odor. I don’t think I’ve ever come into contact with enough blood that I smelled anything… ---
**Author:** ![Ashes\_Ashes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@Ashes\_Ashes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashes_Ashes)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/45 "2011-12-15T09:18:05Z")
To me it smells the same (or has a similar component) as when somebody’s eating Corn Nuts. ---
**Author:** ![raskolnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e47c2d/32.png) [@raskolnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raskolnik)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/46 "2011-12-15T14:05:24Z")
If anything smells WORSE than a fully rotten explosive rancid water melon, it doesn’t matter. 3people, including myself puked. Worse one of my coworkers got it in her FACE! It was the worst smell ever. Nothing has ever come close. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155/47 "2011-12-15T15:13:16Z")
GI graft vs host is worst of all, but, since that also contains feces, and tissue, maybe it doesn’t count. Blood from different systems smells different. Large amounts of fresh, uncontaminated blood does smell like pennies. It isn’t exactly unpleasant, but anxiety producing, at least, for me. As **Bobbio** said, it smells like work. The smell produces a rush of catacholomines in healthcare providers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-smell-of-fresh-blood/574155.md?page=2)