YOUR SAY: Summer can really be the pits!

Summer is now in full swing and the weather is getting much warmer; there is something in the air and it's not the fragrant smell of flowers, that's for sure.

If someone tells you stink, then face it – you probably do!

Summer is now in full swing and the weather is getting much warmer; there is something in the air and it's not the fragrant smell of flowers, that's for sure.

The warmer climate seems to bring out one of the worst of habits in people; that pungent and unpleasant smell of a person's unwashed body. Yes - body odour!

Body odour can be caused by any number of things: diet, exercise and sweat, what clothes we wear, personal grooming (or lack thereof), not changing one's undergarments, or by just being slothful.

Tucking into lunch at a canteen, in a restaurant, or at a shopping centre eatery, there is nothing more paralysing to one's senses than to get a mouthful of another's body odour when trying to eat a meal. Nothing could make you sicker.

Similarly, there is nothing more objectionable to some of us than to be in confined and restrictive area when somebody's body odour is that repugnant that it sends people blue in the face from having to hold their breath.

And contrary to what some might have you believe, both men and women excrete body odour.

Pity the poor shop assistants and public servants confronted with this scenario each day.

In the workplace, at the theatre, in a bus, on a crowded train, in the car, or in a shopping centre, you can almost taste the hideous smell of someone's B.O.

Maintaining one's personal hygiene is not an idyllic social norm and convention that should be ignored as a matter of personal choice and convenience?

Personal hygiene is of paramount importance in anything and everything we do each and every day.

Just as you want your food to be prepared, handled and served without the worry of getting sick from bacteria contamination, stop and think about those around you who have to suffer, endure and worry about what they might catch from you because you can't maintain some basic sense of personal hygiene.

Like passive cigarette smoke, body odour wafts through and permeates the air all about, riffles the nostrils, engulfs, and shocks the senses.

Considering underarm deodorant, or even a body spray for that matter, costs only a few dollars (and less than a Big Mac mind you), there is no excuse for not maintaining a state of hygienic bliss.

And if you don't want to change your underwear each day, buy a new pair and save your embarrassment.

We are what we eat. If you eat rubbish, your body will smell like a waste dump or sewer.

If someone tells you stink, then face it - you probably do!

#Helon

Originally published as YOUR SAY: Summer can really be the pits!