Sunday, July 23, 2006

Inhalers and not the asthma kind

Gold Mints Procducts Co. Ltd manufactures inhalant products. A chap-stick size container I see many locals pull out of their purses or pockets and sniff. Once in one nostril, once in the other. Maybe twice or three times if the air is real stinky.
The company's website reads:
We are determined to manufacture the highest possible quality, strictly hygenic products, ensuring users safety and comfort at present and in the future.
Primarily, the stuff just smells good (I suppose that's one way to balance out pollution), but it's also supposed to relieve fatigue that inevitably comes with living in a city. The list of active ingredients printed on the container:
Eucalyptus Oil 8.5%
Menthol 42.0%
Camphor 16.4%
Borneol 6.1%
From my experience eucalyptus oil and menthol are harmless enough. Camphor (and borneol, which is chemically related to camphor) I am not so sure about. My only encounter with it was in Bulgakov's Heart of a Dog, where Sharik was injected with it while undergoing his operation. Hmm...

At first I was skeptical. But after being exposed to pollution and various other city smells in the first month of being here, I decided it was worth a try. So JR got me some for my birthday. One is even a double so you can put it to both nostrils at the same time! And at the very least, the inhalant smells very nice.

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