Local Odor Vocab

Curren's SCAQMD Urban Odor Dictionary

link to google fusion graph

You’re looking at a smell network based on the work of UCLA post-grad named Jane Curren. She took all the words used in odor complaints in southern California, and found the source of those complaints. These odor sources can be anything from a hidden garbage dump to a local restaurant. The size of the blue nodes doesn’t indicate smelliness; it indicates more descriptors. Restaurants have more descriptors because they have 1. More people near them and 2. A greater diversity of things that smell. (I’m guessing this.) What this chart does show is the most common odor complaints in the middle of the cluster – we smell burnt things a lot. Also rotten eggs/sulfur/natural gas.

Below, Curren went further and found the specific chemical source of these smells, and I listed them below. Next time you smell something funny, check this list. (And the next time you’re in New Jersey, take a tour of the New Jersey Turnpike mobile museum of olfactory delights, you’ll smell firsthand many of the odors on this list!)

Curren's Urban Odor Lexicon

               

Descriptor                           Odorant

solvent                                 2-butanone

petroleum                          2-methyl-1-propene

pungent                               2-pentanone

sweet                                   2-pentanone

lemon                                   acetaldehyde

alcohol                                  acetaldehyde

acrid                                      acrolein

pungent                               ammonia

sweet solvent                   benzene

sweet                                   dichloromethane

decayed cabbage             ethyl mercaptan

pungent                               formaldehyde

rotten egg                           hydrogen sulfide

woody                                  m-cresol

resinous                               m-cresol

medical                                                m-cresol

woody                                  o-cresol

resinous                               o-cresol

medical                                                o-cresol

woody                                  p-cresol

resinous                               p-cresol

medical                                                p-cresol

medical                                                phenol

sweet                                   phenol

irritating                               propanal

fruity                                     propanal

empyreumatic                  pyridinec

irritating                               sulfurdioxide

aromatic                              toluenec

fishy                                      trimethylamine

pungent                               trimethylamine

sweet                                   acetone

minty                                    acetone

sweet solvent                   benzene

woody                                  cresol

resinous                               cresol

medicinal                             cresol

sour                                       dimethyl disulfide

onion                                    dimethyl disulfide

decayed cabbage             dimethyl sulfide

decayed cabbage             ethyl mercaptan

garlic                                      ethyl mercaptan

aromatic                              ethylbenzene

pungent                               formaldehyde

rotten eggs                         hydrogen sulfide

skunk                                    i-propyl mercaptan

sour                                       methyl mercaptan

garlic                                      methyl mercaptan

decayed cabbage             methyl mercaptan

skunk                                    n-butyl mercaptan

skunk                                    n-propyl mercaptan

medicinal                             phenol

sweet                                   phenol

irritating                               propanal

sweet                                   p-xylene

sharp                                     thiophene

skunk                                    thiophene

rubber                                  toluene

moth balls                           toluene

aromatic                              1,2,4-trimethylbenzene

aromatic                              1,3,5-trimethylbenzene

vinegar                                 acetic acid

sour                                       acetic acid

chemical                              acetone

sweet                                   acetone

acrid                                      acrolien

pungent                               ammonia

sweet                                   a-pinene

pine                                       a-pinene

sweet solvent                   benzene

malty                                     butanal

burnt                                     butanal

rancid                                    butyric acid

sour                                       butyric acid

perspiration                       butyric acid

fruity                                     butyl acetate

dead body                          cadaverine

disagreeable sweet        carbon disulfide

almond                                 chlorobenzene

sweet                                   chloroform

ethereal                               chloroform

pungent                               crotonaledehyde

gasoline                               decane

ethereal                               dichloromethane

sour                                       dimethyl disulfide

onion                                    dimethyl disulfide

decaying vegetation       dimethyl sulfide

aromatic                              ethylbenzene

oily                                         heptanal

musty                                   heptanal

woody                                  heptanal

fatty                                      hexanal

green                                    hexanal

rotten egg                           hydrogen sulfide

sharp                                     isopropyl benzene

aromatic                              isopropyl benzene

sharp                                     cumene

aromatic                              cumene

lemon                                   limonene

decayed cabbage             methyl mercaptan

moth balls                           naphthalene

tar                                          naphthalene

sweet                                   m-xylene

gasoline                               octane

sweet                                   o-xylene

pungent                               pentanal

sharp                                     propanal

vinegar                                 propanoic acid

sour                                       propanoic acid

sweet                                   p-xylene

solvent                                 styrene

rubber                                  styrene

sweet                                   tetrachloroethene

rubber                                  toluene

moth balls                           toluene

sweet                                   tricholoroethane

fishy                                      trimethylamine

fecal                                      valeric acid

sour                                       valeric acid

sweet                                   vinyl acetate

Suffet and Rosenfeld's Urban Odor Lexicon

*much of Curren’s work came from Suffet and Rosenfeld, so I added their leftover terms here

Descriptor                           Odorant

Coffee                                  Furfruryl Thiopropionate

earthy                                   Geosmin

musty                                   2-Methyl isoborneol

moldy                                   2,4,6-Trichloroanisole

grassy                                   Cis-3-hexen-1-ol

dead animal                       Putresine

rotten vegetable              Dimethyl Trisulfide

fishy                                      Dimethyl Amine

fishy                                      Methyl Amine

plastic                                   Methyl Methacrylate

fecal                                      Indole

manure                                  Skatole

burnt                                     Guiaicol

Primary document: Curren, J. 2012. Characterization of Odor Nuisance. UCLA.

http://www.wcsawma.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/JMC-dissertation.pdf

Supporting document: Suffet, I.H., and P.E. Rosenfeld (2007). The Anatomy of Odour Wheels for Odors of Drinking Water, Wastewater, Compost and the Urban Environment, Water Science and Technology 55(5), 335-344.

Research note: The descriptor names come from the above source and supporting documents, whereas the odor causing compounds were matched against varying sources which will not be listed here; see instead the source document for those references

On Odors and Air Quality

Forget Beijing, walk down the street in New York City and you will see people wearing facemasks like it’s cool. Actually, it is kind of cool, but it is really sad when you think about it. It’s also pretty sad because these facemasks will do mostly nothing to help your exposure to air pollution. What you really want is a NIOSH-Approved N95 Particulate Filtering Facepiece Respirators.

Air quality should be a big deal at this time of year. Not sure where you’re reading this from, but here in New Jersey, or perhaps the greater Northeast, summer brings with it daily air quality alerts. This is where you can’t breathe too much during the hours of 11am and 11pm. Mostly these alerts have to do with ozone, which is good when it’s up in the air blocking UV rays, but not so good when it's at ground level being inhaled by you.

There are plenty of other pollutants in our air, and those living in a metropolitan area should know about these things. As will be repeated below, air pollution is the world’s largest single environmental health risk.

While I was reading a great article about a massive data-fueled smell map, I came across this passage, and figured it’s good enough on its own to put here, because it makes a really important distinction between odor and air pollution.

From the article “Smelly Maps: The Digital Life of Urban Smellscapes,” in their methodology section, about the air quality of streets and how it effects their data:

“The olfactory experience of a city is inevitably influenced also by the quality of the air, measured by the amount of pollutants that are emitted in the atmosphere by several human activities. It is useful to clarify the differences between air pollutants and odors. Air pollutants are chemicals that, when released into the air, pose potential harm to human and environmental health. These chemicals may or may not be detected through the human senses (McGinley, Mahin, and Pope 2000). Some air pollutants have odors (e.g., benzene has a sickly sweet odor) while others, such as carbon monoxide, cannot be detected through the senses of smell. Air pollution is the world’s largest single environmental health risk, being the cause of one in eight of the total premature global deaths, according to the World’s Health Organization.” http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/air-pollution/en/

This goes on to list the handful of pollutants that are measured in cities: carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, particulate matter at both 10 and 2.5 micrograms, and sulfur dioxide.

Later, in another section, the authors mention this, which gives us an inkling that odor detection and air pollution detection could become good friends:

“ Barcelona is predominantly characterized by smells related to food and nature, while London is characterized by smells related to traffic emissions and waste. As The Economist puts it: “In 2013 the annual mean concentration of NO2 on Oxford street was one of the highest levels found anywhere in Europe.” (The Economist 2015).

One way to detect an area where local, point-source air pollution might be a problem is to look for areas with less nature. The authors of this study found that many odors were complementary, so that odors of “nature” were not found near odors of “emissions” (i.e., pollution)

Before closing I should mention that odors as co-pollutants can indicate pollution levels high enough to cause averse health effects. In a dissertation on the subject of urban odors, the author gives examples of a natural gas facility emitting benzene and a pig farm emitting H2S. In neither case did the pollutant itself smell, but the co-pollutants were enough to start an investigation.

-Curren, J. 2012. Characterization of Odor Nuisance. UCLA.

Notes:

McGinley, C.; Mahin, T.; and Pope, R. 2000. Elements of Successful Odor/Odour Laws. In WEF Odor/VOC 2000 Specialty Conference.

The Economist. 2015. The big smoke. Britain needs to do more to clean up its dirty air. January 10th.

Primary Source:

Quercia, Daniele, Rossano Schifanella, Luca Maria Aiello, and Kate McLean. 2015. “Smelly Maps: The Digital Life of Urban Smellscapes.” In Proceedings of the Ninth International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2015). Palo Alto, CA: AAAI Publications. 327-336. Accessed November 28, 2016. http://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM15/paper/view/10572.

Full pdf:

https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM15/paper/view/10572/10516

Post Script:

The Evolution of Face-mask Fashion, bjournal.co, Dec 2015.

http://bjournal.co/the-evolution-of-face-mask-fashion/

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