The sodin of the marijuana smoke. Burning mazones from a pet food factory. Smoke from construction sites. These are the smells that color communities and low -income people in Denver are disproportionately exposed to at home and at work, according to a new study.
The study, published in the Environmental Exhibition and Epidemiology Science MagazineIt is one of the first to examine the dimensions of environmental justice of bad odors in an urban environment.
“Odors are often ignored because they are difficult to study and regulate.”
There have been a lot of investigations in recent years that shows that people with color and lower income are exposed to greater air pollution, including nitrogen oxides and particles. Exposure to air pollution causes or exacerbates cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, among other health problems, and increases the general risk of death.
Odors are more difficult to measure than other types of air pollution because they are chemically complex mixtures that dissipate quickly. “Odors are often ignored because they are difficult to study and regulate,” he said Quist of the CenadorAn environmental epidemiologist at Ohio State University that did not participate in the investigation.
Although other types of air pollution in the United States are limited by federal and regulated laws at the state level, odors are generally regulated under local discomfort laws. Although something subjective, some people do not care that a neighbor touch, dodores can have a great impact on how people experience their environment and if they feel safe. Bad odors can limit the enjoyment of people from their homes and courtyards, and reduce the values of the properties.
“The smell is one of the ways in which municipalities can take measures on air pollution.”
Odors are more than a discomfort: they raise real health risks. Exposure to bad odors is associated with headache, high blood pressure, irritated eyes and throats, nausea and stress, among other evils.
Urban Planning Researcher at Colorado Denver Priyanka Desouza This local regulation of odors provides municipalities with the opportunity to intervene in environmental health. “The smell is one of the ways in which municipalities can take measures on air pollution,” he said.
Previous research on environmental smell pollution have focused on specific sources, including chemical spills and concentrated animal feed operations such as industrial pig farms. Desouza said that the Denver unusually robust smell compliance system made it possible to study the dimensions of environmental air justice in a large geographical area.
Making a stench
The city maintains a smell complaints database that includes a description of the smell and direction of the complaint. The Desouza team used automatic learning to identify issues in the complaints made from 2014 to 2023. They found four main groups: smells related to a Purina pet food factory, smell of the property of a neighbor, smoke reports of construction and other works, and complaints about marijuana and other small industrial sources.
They used the text of the smell complaints and the locations of the complaints to deduce the probable source of the smell. For example, complaints about the pet food factory often included the words Night, Dog, Bad and Burn. Complaints related to marijuana often used strong words and smoke.
They also coincided with complaints against the addresses of 265 facilities that the city has required that the city will develop smell control plans for reasons that include the nature of its business, or because there have been five or more complaints about them within them within 30 days. (Growth, processing or marijuana manufacturing occurs in 257 of these facilities).
The less privileged census blocks, those with higher percentages of non -white workers and residents, residents with less formal education, lower average income and lower properties values, were more likely to contain a potentially smelly installation, according to the analysis. Desouza said that this is probably due to structural racism and the historical network lining in Denver.
The facilities concentrated on a part of the city that is isolated by two main highways. Previous research It has shown that people in these neighborhoods are exposed to greater air pollution related to traffic, and that people of color, particularly Hispanic and Latin populations are more likely to live there.
However, people who live and work in those areas were more likely to record a complaint about bad odors than people in other parts of the city. In fact, most of the complaints come from parts of the city that are gentrifying. Desouza said that it is not clear why people who live or work near a stinking installation are no more likely to complain that people living farther from one.
It may be that the wind takes odors to richer neighborhoods, where the most privileged people are more aware of Denver’s laws and feel trained to complain. The research team, which includes researchers from the city’s public health department, continues to study odors in the city. Its next step is to integrate information about the speed and wind direction with smell complaints.
Quist said that the study is unique in the sense that it takes into account the possible exhibitions in the workplace, where people spend a large part of their day. Exhibitions in the workplace can also have effects on health that are not captured in an investigation that only looks where people live. “A lot of research has focused on residential disparities,” he said, adding that the inclusion in the analysis of the facilities that have had to present smell monitoring plans is also significant. “This is an important article,” he said.
Desouza said it suspects that people who live and work near the smelly facilities may not be complaints because they feel deprived of their rights. “People resign smells, have been living there for a long time and do not feel they have a voice.” If the residents in less privileged neighborhoods could successfully present a smell complaint and obtain results, they can make them feel more connected in general with the city government, he added.
“I am really interested in supporting political action,” he said. “We are trying to make residents aware that they may complain.”
—Katherine Bourzac, scientific writer
Citation: Bourzac, K. (2025), Denver’s most stinky air is concentrated in less privileged neighborhoods, EOS, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025o250183. Posted on May 13, 2025.
Text © 2025. The authors. CC BY-NC -nd 3.0
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