atlasman,
I did not read all the post on this thread as I am already in my 40's and would rather spend the rest of my limited time on earth doing other things so this point may have been settled.
I am currently a Navy Deep Sea Diver and have been for longer then most people on this site have been alive. We( as does NASA)do to this day use activated charcoalin varrious forms to filter ourlife support system breathinggases inconventional, high pressure oxygen,and saturation diving systems.
We do not use heat to reactivate them but rather replace them at around 200 - 1000 hours of use depending on the canister type and construction. I can tell you this, the ability of charcoal to removegasses andvapor particles from the surrounding atmosphere is well scientifically provenand not to mention absolutely necessary in the world of deep sea diving and space exploration.
Agas or vapor thatposesno danger to the human bodyon the surface (1 atmosphere)will become lethalas greater depths or increases in pressure are reached ( Dalton Law).It is this absorbsion quality of charcoal that we trust our lives with every time we enter a pressurized atmosphere.
The way charcoal is cleansed of human scent molocules by moderate heat such as a household dryeris basedoff the combonation of several basic physics laws. To keep it barney simple, put a coke can in the trunk of you car on a hot day. The can will begin to expand as the gas moloculesin thecoke heats up and begin to move. This is the same theory behind the sent molocules being heated up and therefore put into action which dislodges them from the surface of the charcoal.
It may not remove or dislodge all of the scent molocules but it will remove a vast majority of them as they are only attached to the surface irregularities of the charcoal not actually absorbed by them.
It was not that long ago that people believed that the world was flat. Because we do not fully understand something does not make it un-true.