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Gene Wensel's secret odor control

PointBlank

PointBlank

Member
I just finished reading Gene Wensel's book "Come November". It is a great book with terrific insight to whitetails and bowhunting. In one chapter, he addresses odor control. Wensel suggests dusting your feet with alum powder (aluminum sulfate that you can buy in drug stores) once a day for six weeks. He reports that this will totally keep your feet from sweating for a couple of years. That would be great for deer hunters, but I am a little hesitant to try this without any other background on the stuff. Sounds kind of extreme. Has anybody else ever heard anything about this?? Are there any dangers to doing this to your feet??
 
I wouldn't. Your skin is the largest breathing organ of your body, and many chemicals can and are absorbed through it. Nicotine and medical skin patches wouldn't work if the skin couldn't absorb.

A quick serch found this MSDS data:
WARNING! HARMFUL IF SWALLOWED OR INHALED. CAUSES IRRITATION TO SKIN, EYES AND RESPIRATORY TRACT

Synonyms: Sulfuric acid, aluminum potassium salt, dodecahydrate; potassium alum dodecahydrate; Alum Potassium USP Powder TAC; Potassium alum; Potash alum; Alum; Kalinite

Potential health Effects: This material hydrolyzes in water to form sulfuric acid, which is responsible for the irritating effects:

Inhalation: Causes irritation to the respiratory tract. Symptoms may include coughing, shortness of breath.

Ingestion: Causes irritation to the gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms may include nausea, vomiting and diahrrhea. There have been two cases of fatal human poisonings from ingestion of 30 grams of alum.

Skin Contact: Causes irritation to skin. Symptoms include redness, itching, and pain.

Eye Contact: Causes irritation, redness, and pain.

http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/a2856.htm
 
Wensel has his PhD in Whitetails but probably not in chemistry. I have to agree with Shredder on the use of plain commercial products for control of body odor.
Kat- You are looking at the MSDS for Alum (aluminum potassium sulfate) not the same but related to--- aluminum sulfate which is widely used as an antiperspirant and is the active ingredient in some products. It shouldn't be used on open skin or irritated skin, or recently shaved areas (Fishbonker beware!). The other option would be something like a prescription product "Drysol" which is aluminum chloride- used for hyperhidrosis (excessive glowing
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) but you can probably find a sympathetic MD to prescribe for tree stand feet. Again- I'd follow Shredder's advice on this but will pass on shaving.
 
That’s the reason I get my deo (glow control) from my friendly local health food store (and everything else for that matter.) I don’t want that stuff on me, I’m a sensitive soul.
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The stuff I use works better than regular store stuff, it smells really good and it comes in unscented for hunting season.
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Suprisingly it works quite well! Yeah there is a hell of a mark up on the product, but a cannister lasts a long time.
 
Better living through chemistry... or

"no families take so little medicine as those of doctors, except those of
apothecaries"
- Oliver Wendell Holmes 1809-1894
 
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