Back To The Maple Syrup & Chemicals Which Emit That Smell

[Me.]

A friend saw my thread about the maple syrup smell that invaded NYC back a year or so ago. Apparently combinations of chemicals can produce a sweet smell. Not trying to get too tin foilly, but really what is going on? This is the 3rd incident of this type and so far, no explanation has been offerred for any of them.


Gothamist (NYC) "maple syrup problem smell" from October 2005:
http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2005/10/28/maple_sugar_smell_mystery.php?

and same time frame from here:
http://metadish.com/news/nyc/maple-syrup-spill-in-nyc-something-strange-and-sweet-in-the-air-last-night.php

Vinyl Chloride and Ethylene dichloride report sweet odor: http://www.ieer.org/sdafiles/vol_7/7-4/pancevo.html?

CARBON DISULFIDE, CARBON TETRACHLORIDE, and CHLOROMETHANE report sweet odor (caps due to copy/paste)
http://toxprof.crcpress.com/default.asp?cc=67?

[NYCGirl]

1. It's all from New Jersey.

:evilgrin:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. I wouldn't quite describe CS2 as "sweet."

CCl4 and CH2Cl2 are sort of "sweet" but they don't have much odor. If people smelled them it would have to be a high enough concentration that everybody would certainly know where the source was.

And neither of the latter would be misidentified as a gas leak.

[Me.]

3. Any Clues As To What It Could Be

The sweet smell wasn't from the incident today, which definitely smelled like gas, but a different one where it was described as smelling like maple syrup, some people said cotton candy.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. No idea to either case.

and I'd need more information for both before getting worried over it.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. When I lived in Joisey...

there were regular reports of smells and gases from unknown sources. Turnpike tollbooths were closed, schools evacuated and other such goings on when it got bad. Rarely was there ever an explanation for the source. Every so often I got a whiff of something nasty, and the aroma on the Turnpike from Linden to Newark is legendary.

New Jersey has an enormous chemical industry going back before even the days of petroleum refining, and has over 100 Superfund sites (that's almost 10% of the national total). A vast amount of work has been done to clean things up, but the job is far from finished and there are still huge tanks of godknowswhat sitting around, some of which are pretty much abandoned after the owners went out of business.

Most of the operators there now are legitimate and at least trying to keep things clean, but not only does shit happen in those old plants and storage facilities, but there are still a few pirate operators that haven't been caught yet. And there are military facilities that will never own up to it if it was theirs.

Good chance we'll never know what caused this.