The Anosmia reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Anosmia

Anosmia is the lack of olfaction, or a loss of the sense of smell. It can be either temporary or permanent. A temporary loss of smell can be caused by a stuffy nose while a permanent loss of smell may be caused by death of olfactory cells in the nose, or brain injury in which there is damage to the olfactory nerve or damage to the part of the frontal lobes of brain itself that detect and process smell.

one specific cause of permanent loss maybe from zinc based nasal sprays. see here for example

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