Sweet smell in the air outside, not floral, but chemical

[EC]

any ideas what it could be? Lower Wisconsin - between Chicago and Milwaukee...can't think of any plastics manufactures.

[Tace]

1. Ozone?

Storm coming?

Edit: Checked the weather there. That's not it.

[EC]

7. That's what I was thinking

there was a brief thunderstorm...

[anarch]

2. chemtrails?

:hide:

[dchill]

23. [[[[[ L - O - L ! ]]]]]

LOVE your avatar. I'll be grinning for hours.

"chemtrails?" indeed!

[Renew Deal]

34. Chemblobs?

[valerief]

3. Smelled funny in Northern Mass. Monday night

Sickly sweet like ribs, but there are no restaurants in the vicinity. Pervasive and long-lasting.

[tridim]

4. A sweet chemical smell?

I didn't know that was possible.

[EC]

10. Yeah, walk by a hospital lab

someday and take a deep breath...

[kittenpants]

5. Is it febreze? maybe the dumped a batch on NO

[EC]

8. No, it smells more like cheap perfume

like someone sprayed a giant bottle over the whole city...

[agates]

6. Spraying for mosquitoes

perhaps? Some of those pesticides have weird smells. Check your local news media to see if they have a listing of when your local gov't is spraying.

[MojoXN]

9. Sweet?

Oranges, almonds, vanilla, what kind of sweet?

Elaborate, and I'll chip in with my $.02

MojoXN

[EC]

11. Have you ever smelled

Avon's Occur perfume? Or Orkin? oily sweet?

[MojoXN]

13. This is a common feature of several chemical contaminants...

And, unfortunately, no, I have never smelled Avon Occur before. Is it a smell similar to baby powder, or evergreen, or what? Surely you must be able to describe your olfactory sensation in universal terms... Is there ANYTHING descriptive that you can add. The "oily" or "greasy" is a good start. Bulid on it!

MojoXN

[EC]

18. I can detect

almond and orange blossem, but there is something else I can't quite get...

[MojoXN]

31. That's EXACTLY why I asked about almond and orange....

The something else that you can't quite get is likely coumarin. It smells kind of like a faint pine/vaporub. What you've been exposed to is almost certainly a cyanide at an extremely low concentration. The almond and orange is an unusual combination, but very typical of cyanide compounds in general. It's not HCN, or you wouldn't be picking up the orange-ness. Also, it would be potent enough to arrest your breathing temporarily. Whatever it is, it isn't healthy, that's for sure. How long ago did the odor peak in intensity, if it has yet? You've truly piqued my curiousity.

MojoXN

[EC]

33. It seemed strongest at about 5:00 pm central time

it was rather sickening...I came into the house turned on the fans and closed the windows...it still lingers..

I was coughing a lot outside and had a hard time stopping when I came in...drank two cups of hot tea, and seems alright now...

cats are quieter than usual.

[MojoXN]

37. Was there a directly observsble mechanism of introduction?

By which I mean, did you see what put this stuff into the air? If not, have you ever smelled it before? Are there any industrial plants in your area? Was the contaminant noticably worse at any time other than indoor v. outdoor? And, finally, describe as best as you can the sensation in your lungs, and sensory impact in general. This has REALLY caught my interest.

MojoXN

[EC]

41. No, only saw blackish blue helicopter maybe 5 minutes

before, not common around here. We have med units but they are white with red shield. Never smelled it before -at first I thought someone with too much perfume was following me...but came to realize the smell was everywhere, it was stronge everywhere, even inside...I have showered, washed my face and had fans running with windows closed...stopped the fans a little while ago and it still smells strong...hang on, let me go outside (have to let the dog out anyway) in the meantime look at last statement of post 35 - might be a clue -

On edit: okay I'm back, outside is not right but the sweet smell is gone, now - it rained for about 30 seconds, berely wet the ground, but it smells muddy, like a swamp...

lungs feel congested, was just going to take a cold pill..

[EC]

42. Oh forgot, industrial plants

Agra industry, like cranberry (Ocean Spray), Paint (Rustolleum) Abbott Labs, Baxter Labs, Chrysler, JI Case (John Deere), a few tooling places, Snap-On and Manutronics, there may be more, but no plastics that I can think of...


Sensory ? tingly - or it could be imagination?

[TheCentepedeShoes]

20. Occur ?

Eewwww. That's bad. Or Patou's "Joy." Someone gave me some way back when, smelled like bug spray.

On Edit: Not trying to make a joke out of this. You all be safe.

[EC]

35. No problem

Occur is bad, my Mom used to say it reminded her of the old time funerals, that they used to have in their homes, back in West Virginia...the mix of dead body and flowers...

[Obamarama]

12. Oh my GOD...that is so bizarre!

My partner is flying off to France tomorrow for a couple of weeks and we went out for a nice dinner this evening in South Haven, MI, which is on the state's west coast. Walk (ah, or swim in this case) about 65 due west of South Haven and you would hit Zion, Illinois. Smack dab between Chicago and Wisconsin.

After dinner we walked along the beach and took in the sunset. We both noted something "strange smelling" in the air. We couldn't quite put our fingers on it, but it definitely wasn't your typical lakeshore aroma.

We didn't really think much about it other than we both noticed it, but now I'm wondering WTF???

[EC]

14. I know exactly where you are

directly across from here...my sister has property in South Haven...same here, can't quite put my finger on it...some almond, and maybe mum, can't think of it...I closed my windows, so I'm trying to go by memory...maybe orange...


oh on edit: it's really heavy and sickly, it feels like it coats the skin...our city stopped spraying for mosquitoes years ago.

[Obamarama]

15. Well, if we wake up Bushbots in the morning, we'll know why!

[EC]

16. I know

but then - will we really know why, or will we think we always been like that, and someone vandalized our car and put those awful bumper stickers on?

[Jersey Devil]

21. Do you have chemical plants nearby

The smell of almonds often accompanies arsenic.

[EC]

25. Probably, not real sure

I know there is a paint factory maybe 10 miles south, but has been there for years and nothing like this. Crysler used to have paint smells before they went to magnetized finishes and I'm a few blocks north of that plant, but that's not the same smell as today... Abbett labs is about 20 miles south...as is Baxter Labs...

[EC]

32. Yeah, that I remember from Sherlock Holmes

but what would be manufactered with arsenic?

[Kurovski]

17. Soon you will ALL unaccountably vote Republican!

[EC]

19. Or just not have

elections...

[undergroundpanther]

24. I have smelt weird smells here

in the Maryland air..

Like out in the country no one around I caught an overwhelming yeasty smell,almost like bread dough. No bread factories for miles..

Also I have smelt that perfumrery smell too It is oily and thick with a bitter almond tinge and a dash of pledge furniture polish. It's enough to make you gag.
And there was the metal scent.. A weird weird smell that time it was almost like the scent of steel shavings and the rancid smell of ozone like youy get off of new electrical gadgets when you unwrap them.
Also I have smelt a sweet and pepperey like smell it smells kinda sweet piney but it has a smell undertone like black pepper... Any clue what these may be..

There were no spice factories or anything like that nearby..
I smelled this stuff while driving with my partner late at night like 3 am.
Sometimes it is so strong I cut off the air and we go faster to get out of the scent zone.We get paranoid of it sometimes.

[Jersey Devil]

26. Hell, I live in Joisey & we lead the nation in weird smells

Actually, it's the poor people of Staten Island who get to smell NJ's refineries around the Linden area (you see it every week on The Sopranos) due to prevailing westerly winds.

[EC]

36. I know, have an uncle there,

well, did have, he died, now just cousins...but you guys have a lot of sites that still are oozing don't you?

[EC]

30. Used to vacation at my grandmother's farm in

West Virginia...the closest town was Oakland, Maryland (by Deep Creek) and I noticed that what ever weather we had here would be there in 2 days time...yeah, this smell is like the second one you described...my fingers even kinda tingle (unless it's psychosomatic)

[clover]

50. weird smell in rural iowa, too, seriously, like sweet licorice! nt

[EC]

54. You're just west of here

quite a bit west - but I wonder if this could be a Katrina front, for all of us, like the other poster above said Chemtrails?

On edit: Ick......

[undergroundpanther]

51. YEs that's IT

that tingly shit..I also get it on my face if the AC blows the scent onto my face,, That I hate.

[EC]

53. Yeah, my lips were numb

like I remember coke doing...

[EC]

38. The metal smell could have been

blood or bloodmeal? Maybe fertilizer or slaughterhouse?

[meisje]

22. It's mind control mist - Rove's secret weapon

I'm not serious

[EC]

27. He does look like an evil

scientist....like Lithgow in Buckaroo Bonzi..

[Lindsay]

28. Virgins Bower just finished blooming around here.

Very heavy almondy scent with a touch of citrus. Could that be it?

[EC]

46. Nope haven't seen any

Clematis around here...

[IMayBeWrongBut]

29. *sniff* *sniff* You smell that?

*sniff* *sniff* You smell that?

Yeah

What is it?

Oh, it's probably just cancer.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

39. Oh, you Schaunzer (sp)

Are they not very good at detecting the cancer?

[EC]

44. Probably... n/t

[alfredo]

40. Pollen?

Ozone

[EC]

43. Pollen - I'd be sneezing

Ozone, possible...but we've had ozone before and I always sensed motor oil or metal in it...not this time

[alfredo]

45. The

hemp harvest in?


Silage smells great. Any cattle farms nearby? Any farms anywhere nearby?

[EC]

48. I wish, althought the last has been very good, but that's not it

no skunk smell...Silage usually has alfalfa or clover and I love that smell, this isn't it...

[alfredo]

52. I miss the smell of silage.

I don't miss the smell of the hog farms.

[smurfygirl]

47. once we had a chemical truck roll over in our town

it was a terrible mess and everyone was evacuated for about a day while they cleaned it up. I can still remember the way it made me feel. Almost like my lungs were contracting and I could breath in but breathing out was difficult. The smell was like peony's with transmission oil. that is the only way I know how to describe it. It was terrible. Our creek is still in bad shape from it. Just two years ago we got fish back.

[EC]

49. Now, there is a thought...Highway I-94 is outside of town

but nothing on the local news about a tanker.

I was wondering if the front from Katrina may have come this way. On Obermann the helicopter pilot said the smell was permeating the air even at his altitude...I don't know what the chemical plants down there produced, but the perfume I equate to it my Mom used to say reminded her of funerals in the old days when the bodies were shown in the home and buried in their private cemeteries (family), which meant dead non-embalmed body + flowers...now a lot of chemicals smell like flowers, mix it with death....it came just before a spurt of rain - just a quick front from the south (which is unusual - most our weather patterns come from the northwest).