Curren's SCAQMD
Urban Odor Dictionary
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.
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
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