Scientists estimate that 18 million people will have permanent smell and/or taste dysfunction due to Covid-19. But losing our sense of smell and the accompanying feelings of isolation and disconnectedness affects so many more people than just those with Covid. Millions more are living with smell and taste dysfunction due to traumatic brain injury (TBI), other non Covid-19 viruses, aging, and other causes. This means we are all at risk.

I’m Katie Boateng, President and founding Board Member of the Smell and Taste Association of North America (STANA). In 2009, I lost my sense of smell due to an upper respiratory infection.

What did I need back then?

I needed my doctors to be able to measure just how much my smell had changed. I needed a baseline evaluation of my smell function done with a test. This would have validated my experience of loss and helped lead me and my healthcare providers towards making a plan for effective treatment and coping options.

I was not prepared for my doctors not to have tools to measure my sense of smell. I expected my nose to be treated like my eyes and ears, which have been routinely tested in my life and the life of others. 

14 years later I now know so much more about smell loss and the healthcare impact it poses. Several scientific studies suggest that many people with smell loss are unaware of it, and therefore may be unsafe (for instance, you cannot smell a gas leak). Smell loss can also be a symptom of other diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Disease. Early detection of these neurological diseases can mean earlier intervention and better coping and care plans. But aligning our ability to smell with our overall health is only possible with regular testing, over a lifetime. Why is routine smell testing not a reality?

Offering a smell test to all, from children to the elderly, is now possible thanks to researchers who have developed and validated smell tests to screen for smell disorders. 

STANA is offering this petition to lend our collective voice to advocate for universal smell testing. 

With this petition, STANA has laid out the case for universal smell testing –  why it’s important for every person to have their sense of smell regularly tested, just like routine vision and hearing exams. When you sign this petition, you are becoming part of the community of people standing forward for a future where universal smell testing is accessible and affordable for all. 

How Your Signature Will Help

STANA will bring the voice of this community to advocate for the implementation of routine taste and smell testing in at least two ways. 

First, by partnering with the scientists at the Monell Center at a conference in November 2023 in Philadelphia, PA, USA to bring together scientists, clinicians, public health officials, and people with smell and taste disorders to identify opportunities and challenges for implementing routine taste and smell testing. Your support to the cause of universal smell testing will reach scientists and clinicians widely through a written conference paper to be published in an academic journal and open to the public. 

Second, by promoting the submission of a topic nomination to the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which is a Congressionally mandated, independent panel of medical experts in primary care and prevention who are charged with making recommendations to primary care providers about clinical preventive services. The task force rigorously evaluates clinical research on a topic to assess the benefits and harms of preventive interventions. This has never been done for smell testing, likely because many including in healthcare miss the contribution of this sense to one’s health. Signing this petition will help change that.

When you sign this petition, you will be signing on as a supporter in the published conference paper and in the topic nomination for the USPSTF. 

This petition is both timely and valuable to scientists and clinicians interested in public health, and to those of us with smell or taste disorders. But, because smell loss is associated with other diseases, this is an issue that impacts all of us humans. We must fight for a future of regular taste and smell testing! 

Thank you for joining STANA in this effort!

-Katie Boateng, President - Smell and Taste Association of North America