What You Can’t Smell Will Kill You

NY Times ^ | January 21, 2007 | LUCA TURIN

[neverdem]

NOW that the mystery smells of Manhattan have abated, are you still wondering whether the Grim Reaper’s cologne will smell like maple syrup or rotten eggs when he comes for you?

Don’t worry, because here’s the thing: the more powerful the stench, the less likely it is to do harm. Indeed, the smell that’s typically associated with natural gas is deliberately put in to warn you of its otherwise odorless presence — you’ll call Con Edison before it all goes bang. In this case, it is not the thing that smells that will harm you, but the thing that doesn’t smell.

As a kind of perverse perfumery, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company offers 24 different compositions of sulfur compounds as part of its Scentinel line of gas odorants. A few well-dispersed ounces of Scentinel A, which is made of ethyl mercaptan, the odorant added to natural gas, are enough to stink up all of Manhattan, but by themselves, they won’t blow anything up.

So why do we find the sulfur smell by itself so objectionable? One hundred years ago, the most feared smells were those of putrefaction, which were thought to carry disease. These days, the chain of cold that takes perishables from fridge to fridge has all but eliminated smells of rot — though many people still use the expression “rotten egg smell,” few have ever encountered it. Instead, what we fear today when we smell sulfur is the possibility that manufactured poisons are present.

In response to the widespread suspicion of smells, industry goes to great lengths to avoid generating them, and government agencies pay employees to scour the countryside to identify reported malodors. Nowadays, even huge fragrance plants like Symrise’s, which bestrides the bucolic town of Holzminden in central Germany, can be virtually odorless, thanks to better technology...

[neverdem]

Luca Turin, a biophysicist and the head of technology for a perfume company, is the author of “The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell.”

IIRC, a sign of chemical attack is an abnormally large number of dead critters which should be obvious.

[taxesareforever]

Don’t worry, because here’s the thing: the more powerful the stench, the less likely it is to do harm.

And the NY Times is proof of that.

[Jeff Chandler]

So we're safe around the Clintons?

[Navy Patriot]

So we're safe around the Clintons?

LOL, I learn something new every day.

[neverdem]

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FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

[this_ol_patriot]

...though many people still use the expression “rotten egg smell,” few have ever encountered it.

Apparently this fellow hasn't experienced the "Monday Morning Mens Room" where he works.

[philman_36]

though many people still use the expression “rotten egg smell,” few have ever encountered it. Instead, what we fear today when we smell sulfur is the possibility that manufactured poisons are present.
In all of the hype about that lingering odor I never heard once of the possibility of the aroma coming from H₂S.
Hydrogen Sulfide Gas - "Rotten Eggs"
While extremely high levels of hydrogen sulfide can indeed be harmful, even deadly, H2S is one of those chemicals that can be detected by the nose at an extremely low level. In fact, it can be detected by the human nose at a concentration 1/400 times lower than the threshold for harmful human health effects.

[MarkL]

I don't smell anything unusual!!!! I'm Doomed! I must be dying!

Mark

[philman_36]

Ooops...I stand corrected...
Sniffing Out the Truth
These gases include hydrogen sulfide and a variety of thiols (like the gas additives thiophane and mercaptan) — all of which have an odor similar to rotten eggs.

[beyond the sea]

NOW that the mystery smells of Manhattan have abated, are you still wondering whether the Grim Reaper’s cologne will smell like maple syrup or rotten eggs when he comes for you? ....... Don’t worry, because here’s the thing: the more powerful the stench, the less likely it is to do harm.

****

"Thank God."

[Lurker]

I just figured that NYC pretty much always smelled like that.

L

[beyond the sea]

lol.......

[NonValueAdded]

A new spin on silent but deadly.

[Rte66]

Nor did he ever ride in my old SUV in which a container of several dozen deviled eggs I was taking to a friend's house on a summer day slid off the seat onto the floor *plop* and all the scrubbing and sudsing and interior detailing in the world couldn't get rid of the "rotten egg smell."

Yes, I've smelled *real* rotten eggs AND mercaptan AND hydrogen sulfide gas AND Brays Bayou in Houston. All pretty much the same.

[Rte66]

Ah, that explains it. I'm deathly allergic to most perfumes and I *can* smell them, too. He's a perfume guy, so thinks his *product* doesn't stink, lol.

[tacticalogic]

Somebody needs to inform the Senate Ethics Committee.

[LIConFem]

What you can't kill will smell you...

[Eagle Eye]

H2S produces olfactory fatigue which makes it seem like the smell has gone away. This, along with its toxicity, is what makes it so dangerous.

If the smell was lingering it probably wasn't H2S.

[martin_fierro]

Friggin' perfumologists.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

I just figured that NYC pretty much always smelled like that.

Actually NYC only smells like that because of the odors drifting across from New Jersey's gas refineries!!! :-)

There is a refinery that is along old Route 66/I-55 just south of Joliet, IL. I know I'm getting close to Joliet (coming from the south) whenever I smell that refinery's output because the mercaptan or whatever else they put in that gas just PERMEATES the surrounding air.