What is that stuff that medical examiners smear under their nose while doing an autopsy? Could it be used to relieve people who don’t like the smell of cigarette smoke?
Based solely on TV/books, I’ve heard that Vick’s and similar would be commonly used by crime scene personnel and such to deal with smell. Don’t know if that’s what you have in mind, but it might be an easily-obtained, inexpensive option.
Usually something with a lot of menthol in it. Now-a-days they probably use respirators.
Yes. You can get FFP3 masks with activated charcoal filters against odours. Works like a charm.
I’ve been a medical examiner for quite a while and I’ve never smeared anything under my nose to mask odors. I’ve never known or even heard about any other medical examiner doing that either. It would be interesting to know where that myth originated. (The first time I remember seeing it was Silence of the Lambs - I thought the first guy must have a cold sore, then when everyone else did it I really started wondering what was going on.) I have seen occasional visitors at the morgue rub things like Vicks or even toothpaste under their nose, much to the amusement of all around. I suppose there might be some people who use respirators, but I’ve never known anyone to do that either, not for odor control at least, but for protection from aerosolized pathogens. Everywhere I’ve worked, it’s been sort of an informal proof of fortitude to not modify practice just because of some indelicate odors.
It’s not just the smell of cigarette smoke, it’s the thought of inhaling all those carcinogens into the lungs that offends many non-smokers. And it’s not the non-smokers that need to be ‘relieved’. The onus is on the smokers that insist on self-medicating in public.
Oh, and also, the thread title is utterly opaque.
As **eightysix ** says, I’ve never seen MEs using respirators or anything under their noses (with the exception of the WTC thing, where respirators were worn for entirely different reasons). In most cases, the stench from a corpse isn’t that bad (if it’s reasonably fresh, of course). I think of it as being a distinctive odor (and sometimes worse if certain bodily stuff has escaped), and one that you don’t forget… but not awful.
Also, I’m not an ME (and will defer to eightsix, but I would think that an ME handicapping one of his/her senses to perform an examination would be counter-productive. Hell, without my nose, I never would have found that sesame chicken that a “special lady friend” hid under the couch last week…
… why she stashed sesame chicken under the couch remains a mystery, and she denies it.
Do you happen to own a dog with a sense of humor? Or, perhaps, a cat (who has none)? 
There seems to be at least one product that was developed for MEs and crime scene investigators - Odor Defense.
Quote from link:
For instance, with our first product, Odor Defense we were able to create a combination of ingredients with odorants that change the way the brain perceives offensive and repelling odors. Odor Defense allows Medical Examiners, First Responders and Law Enforcement to apply our product at the end of their nose and not smell decomposing bodies, burned flesh and other repelling odorants but instead, their brain senses a pleasant vanilla odor.
Normally, in this type of environment, the brain triggers unpleasant sensations in the body like retching, nausea and vomiting to drive us away from such scenarios.
Am I the only one wondering how this is a common problem?
-D/a
Dunno about medical examiners, but in the anatomy lab of the medical school that’s part of the medical center where I work, they have big bottles of minty mouthwash stashed around the lab. I jokingly asked the head professor what the technical use for those was, and he replied that it was for the minty smell to damp down your sense of smell in case of more “ripe” bodies. So it’s not Vicks, but at least in some places, people will use less “professional” means of busting odors. Then again, med students in anatomy labs are often newbies to the field, so it’s probably provided so the more delicate can get through their required work.