The main reason people shower/bathe/wash as often as they do is not to remove actual dirt or pollutants, but merely to rid their skin of their own sweat. There is no real need for this other than for the purpose of eliminating its odor. If a substance could be ingested that would render one's sweat non-odorous, large quantities of water (and lengths of time in our personal lives spent needlessly washing, merely to conform to convention) would be saved. Before you comment on the seeming impossibility of this, be aware that such a pill is already available for feces (is sold in Japan.)-- dsm, Dec 24 2000 Please offer a reference to this supposed feces deodorizing pill.
PeterSealy asks "(otherwise, why would we have it?)". The answer is that we don't, really. Fresh sweat (like fresh urine) doesn't smell like much; the odors we associate with sweat and urine are generated by bacteria after they've had a chance to party on the tasty organics we emit.
Sweat itself is of course necessary (for purposes more important than mating!), so to eliminate the smell you'd probably have to kill the bacteria (most deodorants contain antiseptic agents for this reason) or find a way to break down the sweat before bacteria can.
If human pheromones do in fact exist (which is far from proven), they are presumably generated by a different, non-bacterial process.
(Besides, you exclude homosexuals with your remarks on "male-female attraction"... don't they get a little chemical lovin' too?)-- egnor, Dec 25 2000 No...-- egnor, Dec 25 2000 A product called "Body Mint" is manufactured and sold in Hawaii for just that purpose. It's mostly chlorophyll, but it works quite well. It takes several days of taking the pills, but there is a definite improvement of breath, body odor, etc. The only side effect is a definite "greening" of fecal output. It's sold at Long's Drugs here, and perhaps on the mainland by now. Sorry, but the idea is fully baked, and on the market.-- Hawaii Boy, Feb 01 2001 egnor, it's true! That pill is popular with OL's (office ladies) who often share one toilet. Couldn't find a reference to the Japanese product, but here is a link to Monticello's "Nullo" Internal Deodorant Tablets meant for "body odor from incontinence, gingivitis, and halitosis." This is also available at Long's, Hawaii Boy. http://www.monticellocompanies.com/MonticelloDrug/Nullo.htm I just found this site and think it's great. Hi, everyone.-- cheeselikesubstance, Jul 14 2001 [admin: To add a link to the halfbakery, select the "link" directly under the idea text or in the upper left corner in the idea: menu. You'll get a slightly different editor than for annotations, and the link will be HTML'ed and will move up to be more visible under the idea.]-- jutta, Jul 19 2001 random, halfbakery