Hellish Smell Fells Staten Island

Ack! Some crazy, noxious smell seeped into Staten Island yesterday and made people so sick that the city's Hazmat team was brought in! People were made nauseous, anxious (where is that gas leak? I can't find it!), and nervous. Then the smell headed to the Rockaways, but it was less disgusting there and no one needed hospital attention as the Staten Island smell victims did (air conditioners sucked in the smell and concentrated it in homes and offices). The DEP isn't sure what caused the smell - Con Ed and the NJ city of Bayonne has denied that they had anything to do with the smell while KeySpan was working to see what had causing it. Samples are being tested though (how do you collect air samples, exactly?).

And it's funny - when a smell attacks Manhattan (and Brooklyn), it's maple syrup. When it attacks SI and Queens, it's puke-inducing. Interesting...

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By Jen Chung in News on August 16, 2006 9:45 AM

Comments [rss]

Prodigal Borough

For the record:

1. I find the air in Staten Island to be much fresher, lighter, and sweeter than what I inhaled daily when I lived in the Gowanus area.

2. I thankfully didn't smell the gas smell, neither did anyone else I know.

3. The pancake smell was all over my neighborhood, not just a manhattan thing. It still gives me pleasant syrupy memories whenever I close my eyes... mmmmm

zincink

I smell all kinds of strange scents..the worst is driving back from ny on the parkway passing Newark Airport into Linden..rancid..

this is always a fun tool to use

http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/em/

tk

Okay, who let the above poster out of his cage?

homo faggot guy

white people smell the worst. THat's why they got to use deodorant.

Anon E. Mouse

Sounds highly unlikely, ax. There are plenty of urban legends about that area of NJ.

Also, as a New Jersian, I'd say it's okay if you say it smells bad, just as long as you're specific enough about the flavor, and location of that smell, and not just being a stuck up new yorker who hates NJ while knowing fuck-all about it.

ax

it's not strange, it's jersey. and i'm not saying that in a wannabe-ironic or insulting way. i've heard that they store agent orange in the shipping containters on the water in newark directly across from bayonne. i don't really believe it. has anyone else heard anything like that?

mh

When you smell walnut, you better get your gas mask. It could be poison. This is kind of strange. Is someone possibly testing ways to spread gas through the air?

Daimiel

I live in Bayonne and when I woke up this morning there was definitely an odd odor in the air. I noticed it immediately and then decided that it wasn't something I wanted to smell. It was kind of chemically sickly sweet kind of smell, very much unlike the mystery maple syrup of Manhattan.

Whurrr?

Chinatown - overcrowded, disgusting, stank as hell, near those huge housing projects, Escape from New York-quality subway stations, and tiny, filthy, cramped tenament apartments. Your rent? $1,600/month for a 1 bedroom (aka, studio).

God bless this hell hole region.

Lee

We could smell the syrupy smell in Queens too. Hasn't there been enough shafting of Queens for one summer? Chinatown smells far worse than Queens.

I mean damn... represent.

Whoops

Nice work Dan, but no one cares.

hr

instead of febreze maybe they should try masengil. wash the cooch you skanks.

Dan

I'm not trying to be overly harsh here, but the word "nauseous" refers to things that make people sick (nauseated), and not actually to being made ill. See the link below for a good explanation.

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19960514

That is all

ax

i grew up in bayonne and there were mornings i walked out of my building and had to hold my breath it wreaked so bad. whenever it was that bad it was always the same toxic smell. I've also smelled in on the newark bay extension bridge.

Jeebus

Ahh Febreze... A College man's best friend.

"Some crazy, noxious smell seeped into Staten Island"

Smells like.... well... Staten Island. Looks like everything is back to normal.