I was the youngest of three boys and then there was a sister about 6 years later. I recall when I was young that mom would regularly check our clothes to see how dirty they were. If they didn’t look dirty, she would sniff around the clothes to see if they smelled. Part of the reason is that, like many boys, we weren’t always careful with where we put our clean and dirty clothes.

From what I’ve heard, it’s actually a pretty common practice among many parents. Sadly, it’s also common for some singles, like college students and young adults, to not be that careful with their clothes and thus resort to smelling their clothes to see which are clean enough to wear and which articles of clothing smell bad and need washing.

I have to admit that there are times, I’m guilty of the same thing. Working from home on the computer most of the day, I don’t do that much to dirty my clothes, like a pair of shorts or t-shirt, so I plead guilty to picking them up and taking a whiff. Please don’t call me a slob, it just saves on laundry and since I rarely go out around others, I can wear a shirt for a couple of days and same with a pair of shorts (not undershorts).

The thousands to millions who regularly sniff their clothes to see if they are clean, dirty or wearable don’t think anything about it, but what if they learned that the practice could land them in the hospital?

Check out what happened to this one guy:

“A man in China who reportedly sniffed his dirty socks each day learned the hard way that his habit is apparently a health danger.”

“The man, identified only as Peng by the Daily Mail, reportedly developed a habit of sniffing his socks each day after work. But this unusual custom allegedly landed him in the hospital after the Zhangzhou resident complained of chest pains, tightness in his chest and a cough, Science Alert reported.”

“Initially, doctors at Zhangzhou’s 909 Hospital suspected that Peng, 37, had pneumonia. But when his symptoms persisted, doctors re-questioned the man and he eventually admitted he was “addicted to smelling his socks that he had been wearing,” he said, according to the Daily Mail, which cited local Chinese media.”

“Physicians would later discover the man had a serious fungal infection in his lungs, more formally known as pulmonary fungal disease. The infection was likely caused when the man inhaled the fungal spores found in the dirty socks, Science Alert reported.”

Okay, so this guy was addicted to sniff his socks daily, but don’t brush off the warning just yet.

It only takes one good whiff of a fungus to inhale enough spores to infect the lungs.

That means that even the occasional whiff could turn serious. Socks are not the only articles of clothing that can get fungal spores on them. It’s possible that a shirt, slacks, blouse, or dress could come in contact with a similar type fungus, only to allow the spores to infect the lungs with just one good sniff. Besides, you have no idea what type of fungus or bacteria could be growing on your clothes after they’ve been worn at least once and exposed to who knows what.

Bottom line, be more careful when checking your clothes, especially your socks and make sure you keep the dirty ones separated from the clean ones.