6 ms·
As a general note, room air freshener sprays do nothing to freshen the air in your room. For that, you must remove the pollutant source and introduce cleaner a
by danans 5y ago
As a general note, room air freshener sprays do nothing to freshen the air in your room. For that, you must remove the pollutant source and introduce cleaner air.
- lostlogin 5y agoAs someone who has worked in ED, the best remedy is to rub tiger balm or tea tree oil under your nose. Once your eyes are watering and your sense of smell obliterated, you’re ready for action.
- aspenmayer 5y agoHand sanitizer works in a pinch as well but is very harsh to inhale and I’m not certain it’s even safe, but it does work.
- mechanical_bear 5y agoVicks was my goto as an EMT.
- pixl97 5y agoSome odors are more persistent such as the chemicals that treat furniture. They aren't so much bad smell, but ones people would rather cover.
- paraph1n 5y agoIs that always true? I know nothing about air freshener sprays (and do not use them), but I could imagine a spray which contains heavy particles that trap other lighter airborne particles and drag them to the ground. Or a spray which chemically neutralizes certain other foul-odor-causing chemicals.
- 1MachineElf 5y ago>I could imagine a spray which contains heavy particles that trap other lighter airborne particles and drag them to the ground. That's how febreze is supposed to work: >As Febreze dries, more and more of the odor molecules bind to the cyclodextrin, lowering the concentration of the molecules in the air and eliminating the odor. If water is added once again, the odor molecules are released, allowing them to be washed away and truly removed. Source: https://www.thoughtco.com/how-febreze-works-facts-and-chemistry-606149 https://www.thoughtco.com/how-febreze-works-facts-and-chemis...
- TheRealNGenius 5y agoThat's how Febreze works, I've looked into it too in the past. But the problem is that most other air fresheners aren't like that. They're just cheap scented mixtures that try to mask the smell. And it's definitely debatable whether they are doing more harm than good.
- Blackthorn 5y agoIt's definitely not always true. Car products like car bomb will kill the odor. You'll be breathing in the product for a couple weeks, but a couple weeks later it will be gone.
- danans 5y agoPerhaps I should have said they do nothing to clean the air - even if they trap some odors. For that you need a good filter or ventilation. But most stuff I've seen used just is a stronger but more pleasant odor like citrus that becomes the thing you smell.
- ttul 5y agoA HEPA air purifier combined with cleaning the floor goes a long way…
- redisman 5y agoThis is the opposite of a HEPA filter as it’s emitting particles into the air
- version_five 5y agoWhen I was in university, I lived in a residence and there were two girls down the hall that smoked constantly and had a bunch of air fresheners going, with the overall effect being a disgustingly cloying mix of tobacco and synthetic berries or whatever. I've experienced the same thing with those bathroom fresheners where people think spraying them will cover up the smell they produced, and you end up with this revolting mix of poo and air freshener. Overall, I'd almost always rather smell the actual thing being covered than the smell of it being mixed with air freshener, and I assume, bacteria contamination aside, it's a lot healthier not to breath in whatever the fresheners are giving off
- dougSF70 5y agoI agree. My view is; if you can make the bathroom smell, where can you?
- clairity 5y agoi have a neighbor (or three) that smokes weed and another that burns incense. the combo sometimes infiltrates my apartment (through the closet, where i think there is a hole). combined with the old building smell that's embedded in the framing, it's an awful mix of air pollutants. one of my air purifiers does double duty between the closet and the kitchen to combat this very problem. with that said, activated charcoal (which my purifiers include, though undersized) is more suited to smells (molecular size) than hepa filters (particulate matter, which is generally much larger) are. hepa in the bathroom would deal with airborne bacteria but not the poo smell, which would require activated charcoal (a lot of it, along with an uncomfortably powerful fan) to be really effective.
- Factorium 5y agoBuy a CO2 + PM2.5 detector. They're fairly cheap on Aliexpress (~$70). You might just need to ventilate more often.
- clairity 5y agoyes, i have an air quality meter and ventilate my apartment during day, but i keep the closet door closed to keep the cat out. the air purifier does a decent (but not perfect) enough job that it's tolerable for now.
- marginalia_nu 5y agoIt's not like it's impossible to remove odors with chemical means. A very concrete example: The way lingering smoke damage is treated after scrubbing off the soot is with ozone. The smoke smell is from volatile partially oxidized hydrocarbons, and ozone just loves getting rid of an oxygen molecule and becoming O^2. It's at least conceivable that there would be less noxious options available than ozone. An old trick is to use vinegar, seems to work.
- userbinator 5y agoOzone is extremely powerful, there are various "air purifiers" that emit small amounts of it and they do work --- as long as you don't use too much, since ozone also attacks plastics and other things you don't want destroyed along with the odourous chemicals.
- bawolff 5y agoOzone is toxic to humans. You don't want too much because you will literally die. I am highly doubtful that ozone in safe concentrations will do anything. Even at unsafe but not immediately threatening concentrations it probably does nothing.
- coffeecat 5y agoMy parents had an ozone-producing air purifier when I was a child. I liked the smell, and I thought the ozone was healthy (nobody ever told me otherwise!), so I had the habit of turning the ozone knob all the way up, sticking my face in front of it, and taking deep breaths. It didn't cause any health issues as far as I know, but in retrospect, I really wish regulators and/or my parents would have prevented that from happening.
- ultimape 5y agoIt largely gets captured in the mucus barrier in the lungs, but people with COPD or asthma also tend to have poor barrier function (Both mucus and lung liner) so it leaks into the blood stream easier.
- servytor 5y agoFebreze actually does trap 'odorous' molecules though[0]. [0]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/08/17/the-mind-blowing-science-of-how-febreze-hides-your-smelliness/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2...
- themodelplumber 5y agoLet me guess: We shouldn't get you started on new car smell :-)
- version_five 5y agoAs I understand, new car smell is actually all kinds of toxic volatile chemicals that are off gassing from the newly made plasticy parts of the interior. I have a very good sense of smell (and am generally a wimp / easily irritated by solvent or volatile organic chemical smells) and I've had some new cars I had to drive for weeks with the windows open to avoid a headache.
- mrfusion 5y agoWhy is it that any other product only has a new smell for a couple days at most? Yet a car has the new car smell for months.
- thatcat 5y agoA car is a small volume space with a high proportion of VOC releasing surfaces due to the plastic and seat fabric off gassing. The rate of off gassing is limited because most of the time the car is sealed.
- amelius 5y agoAs a sidenote, while browsing I came across the disorder known as Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, but found out that it is not recognized or explained by mainstream medicine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_chemical_sensitivity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_chemical_sensitivity
- bobthechef 5y ago"There are dozens of us! DOZENS!"
- throwawayboise 5y ago