“The smell of the sea” sounds romantic in books, but being a prairie landlubber, I always kind of thought that the sea, um…not to put too fine a point on it…is rather stinky. At least at first whiff.
Meet the culprit: dimethyl sulphide.
“On bracing childhood visits to the seaside we were always told to ‘breathe in that ozone, it’s good for you’,” said Prof Johnston.
“But we were misled, twice over. Firstly because that distinctive smell is not ozone, it is dimethyl sulphide. And secondly, because inhaling it is not necessarily good for you.”
I knew I made a wise choice being born firmly landlocked.
