Dr. Gary K. Beauchamp was the director and president of the Monell Chemical Senses Center from August 1990 to September 2014. (wikipedia)
Some olive oils are even rated as zero-cough, one-cough or two-cough. But you don't feel the sensation until it is deep in your throat. It's not like hot peppers, which burn everywhere.
Some media reports have associated consuming more extra virgin olive oil with relieving a headache (another inflammatory body response), but that's silly.
It shouldn't be anything like 1998. What we're seeing right now are basically fast-moving grass fires that are relatively easy to control.
So what they have out there is similar to what we had here in Florida after four hurricanes last year - a lot of fuel for wildfires and drought conditions.
It was such a contrast there - all we had seen on the news and in the papers was flooding, but we went to an area with a real potential for wildfire.
There is a throat sting associated with it.
