Resident Odor Reports and Differing Health Outcomes in Areas of Industrial Emission Odor, Louisville, Kentucky

Resident Odor Reports and Differing Health Outcomes in Areas of Industrial Emission Odor, Louisville, Kentucky | medRxiv /* */ /* */ <!-- <!-- /*! * yepnope1.5.4 * (c) WTFPL, GPLv2 */ (function(a,b,c){function d(a){return"[object Function]"==o.call(a)}function e(a){return"string"==typeof a}function f(){}function g(a){return!a||"loaded"==a||"complete"==a||"uninitialized"==a}function h(){var a=p.shift();q=1,a?a.t?m(function(){("c"==a.t?B.injectCss:B.injectJs)(a.s,0,a.a,a.x,a.e,1)},0):(a(),h()):q=0}function i(a,c,d,e,f,i,j){function k(b){if(!o&&g(l.readyState)&&(u.r=o=1,!q&&h(),l.onload=l.onreadystatechange=null,b)){"img"!=a&&m(function(){t.removeChild(l)},50);for(var d in y[c])y[c].hasOwnProperty(d)&&y[c][d].onload()}}var j=j||B.errorTimeout,l=b.createElement(a),o=0,r=0,u={t:d,s:c,e:f,a:i,x:j};1===y[c]&&(r=1,y[c]=[]),"object"==a?l.data=c:(l.src=c,l.type=a),l.width=l.height="0",l.onerror=l.onload=l.onreadystatechange=function(){k.call(this,r)},p.splice(e,0,u),"img"!=a&&(r||2===y[c]?(t.insertBefore(l,s?null:n),m(k,j)):y[c].push(l))}function j(a,b,c,d,f){return q=0,b=b||"j",e(a)?i("c"==b?v:u,a,b,this.i++,c,d,f):(p.splice(this.i++,0,a),1==p.length&&h()),this}function k(){var a=B;return a.loader={load:j,i:0},a}var l=b.documentElement,m=a.setTimeout,n=b.getElementsByTagName("script")[0],o={}.toString,p=[],q=0,r="MozAppearance"in l.style,s=r&&!!b.createRange().compareNode,t=s?l:n.parentNode,l=a.opera&&"[object Opera]"==o.call(a.opera),l=!!b.attachEvent&&!l,u=r?"object":l?"script":"img",v=l?"script":u,w=Array.isArray||function(a){return"[object Array]"==o.call(a)},x=[],y={},z={timeout:function(a,b){return b.length&&(a.timeout=b[0]),a}},A,B;B=function(a){function b(a){var a=a.split("!"),b=x.length,c=a.pop(),d=a.length,c={url:c,origUrl:c,prefixes:a},e,f,g;for(f=0;f<d;f++)g=a[f].split("="),(e=z[g.shift()])&&(c=e(c,g));for(f=0;f<b;f++)c=x[f](c);return c}function g(a,e,f,g,h){var i=b(a),j=i.autoCallback;i.url.split(".").pop().split("?").shift(),i.bypass||(e&&(e=d(e)?e:e[a]||e[g]||e[a.split("/").pop().split("?")[0]]),i.instead?i.instead(a,e,f,g,h):(y[i.url]?i.noexec=!0:y[i.url]=1,f.load(i.url,i.forceCSS||!i.forceJS&&"css"==i.url.split(".").pop().split("?").shift()?"c":c,i.noexec,i.attrs,i.timeout),(d(e)||d(j))&&f.load(function(){k(),e&&e(i.origUrl,h,g),j&&j(i.origUrl,h,g),y[i.url]=2})))}function h(a,b){function c(a,c){if(a){if(e(a))c||(j=function(){var a=[].slice.call(arguments);k.apply(this,a),l()}),g(a,j,b,0,h);else if(Object(a)===a)for(n in m=function(){var b=0,c;for(c in a)a.hasOwnProperty(c)&&b++;return b}(),a)a.hasOwnProperty(n)&&(!c&&!--m&&(d(j)?j=function(){var a=[].slice.call(arguments);k.apply(this,a),l()}:j[n]=function(a){return function(){var b=[].slice.call(arguments);a&&a.apply(this,b),l()}}(k[n])),g(a[n],j,b,n,h))}else!c&&l()}var h=!!a.test,i=a.load||a.both,j=a.callback||f,k=j,l=a.complete||f,m,n;c(h?a.yep:a.nope,!!i),i&&c(i)}var i,j,l=this.yepnope.loader;if(e(a))g(a,0,l,0);else if(w(a))for(i=0;i (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];var j=d.createElement(s);var dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.src='//www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;j.type='text/javascript';j.async=true;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-P4HH5NV'); Skip to main content Home About Submit ALERTS / RSS Search for this keyword Advanced Search Resident Odor Reports and Differing Health Outcomes in Areas of Industrial Emission Odor, Louisville, Kentucky Angelina Rangel , View ORCID Profile Lauren B. Anderson , View ORCID Profile Rochelle H. Holm , View ORCID Profile Ted Smith doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.13.25327517 Angelina Rangel 1 Center for Healthy Air, Water and Soil, Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, School of Medicine, University of Louisville , Louisville, KY, USA Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site Lauren B. Anderson 1 Center for Healthy Air, Water and Soil, Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, School of Medicine, University of Louisville , Louisville, KY, USA Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Lauren B. Anderson Rochelle H. Holm 1 Center for Healthy Air, Water and Soil, Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, School of Medicine, University of Louisville , Louisville, KY, USA Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Rochelle H. Holm For correspondence: rochelle.holm{at}louisville.edu Ted Smith 1 Center for Healthy Air, Water and Soil, Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, School of Medicine, University of Louisville , Louisville, KY, USA Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Ted Smith Abstract Full Text Info/History Metrics Data/Code Preview PDF Abstract Background Environmental odors can impact health and risk perception. Participatory, or citizen science, can provide important data through systematic, mobile application assisted odor reporting. Objectives This study leverages participatory public health science using the Smell MyCity app to investigate resident-reported odors and their association with health outcomes in Louisville, KY. Methods We analyzed 6,868 odor reports from 2018 to 2024, to identify census tracts where industrial and chemical odor reports cluster. Disease prevalence from the CDC’s PLACES data were compared between these tracts and the entire county. Results Results suggest associations between frequent odor reporting areas and increased health risks, highlighting the public health significance of environmental odors and the importance of community-driven data collection. Conclusions This community-driven reporting initiative may be a useful addition to health research in areas which also have high industrial emission odor. 1. Introduction Environmental odors can affect health and influence perceptions of health risk. 1 Community science is a powerful public health tool for odor reporting. 2 While odors are typically regulated as a nuisance matter rather than as an indicator of air pollution exposure, ambient odors can degrade quality of life, causing symptoms ranging from headaches and gastrointestinal distress to respiratory issues. 3 Due to the lack of standardized and timely data about ambient odors, the extent of these symptoms, other health effects, and the possibility that these odors are indicators of specific air toxics is difficult to ascertain. 2. Methods The goals of the project were to: (1) analyze resident-reported odors and identify geographic patterns, (2) compare disease prevalence in areas with more frequent industrial and chemical resident odor reports to the rest of the county, and (3) showcase participatory public health science as a pioneering approach for prioritizing odor investigations by local authorities. After a soft launch, the Smell MyCity app 4 was introduced to the Louisville community in March of 2019 with support from community-based organizations, the University of Louisville, and local government agencies. 5 The mobile phone applications prompt community members to rate the intensity of odors from 1 (just fine!) to 5 (almost as bad as it gets!), adding odor descriptions and other optional details and captures location information from the phone. Smell reports were immediately displayed on the public Smell MyCity map 4 , submitted to Louisville’s Air Pollution Control District and made available for public download. Our analysis focused on descriptions related to industrial and chemical odors, March 2018 through September 2024 ( Supplementary Table S1 ). Coding was by two authors (AR and LBA). The ArcGIS Pro version 2.9.5 (Redlands, CA) Kernel Density tool was used to identify areas where noxious odor reports were highest across the county. We then compared disease prevalence rates from the 2022 PLACES data 6 for asthma, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), coronary heart disease (CHD), depression, diabetes, obesity, and stroke between the census tracts with higher odor reports and the countywide average. The data analyzed were publicly available and therefore institutional review board approval was not required. All data were anonymous and do not include personal identifiers. 3. Results The intervention was implemented in Louisville, Kentucky, a city with a long history of industrial odors and air pollution and a population of 793,881 people. 7 Between 2018 and 2024, residents submitted 6,868 smell reports with odor descriptions to the Smell MyCity app; 1,119 reports described “industrial” and “chemical” odors and assigned smell values of 3 or greater. While odor reports were submitted from across Louisville, many reports originated in the northwestern area of the city. Kernel Density analysis highlighted two census tracts with high frequencies of industrial and chemical odor reports: Census Tract 14 (21111001400) with 163 reports and Census Tract 50 (21111005000) with 83 reports, in the Chickasaw (estimated population 6,299) and California (estimated population 6,523) neighborhoods respectively ( Figure 1 ). 8 Higher disease prevalence between the census tracts of interest and Louisville were observed for asthma, cancer, COPD, CHD, depression, diabetes, obesity, and stroke (Table 2). These neighborhoods are near the historically significant industrial corridor known as “Rubbertown” due to its prominence in the chemical production of synthetic rubber and related petrochemical activities. This area had previously been the focus of the West Louisville Air Toxics Study (WLATS) conducted between April 2000 and December 2005, a comprehensive air monitoring initiative in response to longstanding resident concerns about emissions from local industries. That research ultimately created the United States EPA Strategic Toxic Air Reduction (STAR) Program, which was locally enacted in June 2005, aimed to significantly reduce toxic air pollutants and address public health risks associated with industrial emissions in Louisville. 9 Download figure Open in new tab Figure 1. Map of Louisville, Kentucky: Census tracts with high odor report frequency are outlined in black. Kernel Density analysis highlighted two census tracts with high frequencies of industrial and chemical odor reports: Census Tract 14 (21111001400) with 163 complaints and Census Tract 50 (21111005000) with 83 complaints. View this table: View inline View popup Download powerpoint Table 1. Summary of mean 2022 PLACES disease prevalence rates for asthma, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease, depression, diabetes, obesity, and stroke for census tracts with a high density of odor reports compared to Louisville as a whole. 95% confidence intervals are provided for the countywide group. The members of the West Jefferson County Community Task Force (WJCTF) and Rubbertown Emergency Action (REACT) have advocated for cleaner air, monitored air quality, and assessed health risks associated with air pollutants for residents living in west Louisville. The WJCCTF and REACT promoted the Smell MyCity initiative with the aim to enhance transparency in reporting, bolster citizen trust, and effectively collect data on problematic areas to bring to the attention of APCD. 4. Discussion The motivation behind this intervention was to re-valuate the utility of odors, especially those near industrial sources, as possible indicators of environmental health risks rather than limiting their value as a public nuisance as characterized by air quality regulation. By exploring associations between places with frequent industrial and chemical odor reports and observed disease burden, a new seriousness may be given to the frequent presence of these odors. Furthermore, by empowering residents to report their observations in such a participatory science framework, communities can more directly affect public perception and policy. 10 Thus, our project aimed to investigate the association between industrial and chemical odor reports and the prevalence of specific health conditions, expanding data sources which may be useful to identify and address potential health disparities. We aimed to determine whether there is an association between community-reported odors and a range of health conditions in an area with industrial emissions for prioritizing investigations by local authorities. Continuing the use and promotion of applications like Smell MyCity can empower residents to document and report odors, thereby enabling detailed investigations into clusters of odor sources and related health impacts. This not only improves public health but also strengthens environmental justice initiatives. However, sustainability ultimately depends on ongoing application maintenance by third-party providers, such as Smell MyCity’s Carnegie Mellon team, and ensuring the app remains free for the public. Unlike other research that aligns odor reports with major spatial landmarks for prioritization, 11 our intervention uniquely integrates these reports with health outcomes to enhance prioritization strategies. The sustainability of this activity is facilitated by strong collaborations among community organizations, academic institutions, and local government agencies committed to analyzing the data and engaging. These partnerships foster resource sharing and collaborative problem-solving, driving active community involvement and data-driven public health advocacy. 5. Conclusion Research and analysis of participatory community data, made possible through programs like Smell MyCity, play a crucial role in preserving trust and engagement in public health activities at both local and broader scales. Ultimately, our approach offers a potential model for how grassroots odor reporting efforts can be recognized and respected in environmental health and policy, benefiting both local communities and broader public health initiatives. Data Availability Smell MyCity source data are publicly available, links are provided in the references. COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. CONTRIBUTORS Conceptualization: TS; Methodology: LBA, TS; Formal analysis: AR, LBA; Writing-original draft preparation: LBA, RHH; Writing-review and editing: AR, LBA, RHH, TS; Supervision: TS; Project administration: LBA. All the authors have read and agreed to the published version of this manuscript. DATA SHARING Smell MyCity source data are publicly available, links are provided in the references. Supplementary Material View this table: View inline View popup Download powerpoint Supplementary Table S1. Code analysis for reported odors from the Smell MyCity app. This study was limited to odor descriptions related to industrial and chemical odors (ID 2). ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to extend our sincere thanks to the Carnegie Mellon CREATE Lab for developing the Smell MyCity smartphone application and for making its data freely available to the public. We also thank Anna Dusterhoff for data support. This work was supported by the Owsley Brown II Family Foundation and the NIH (P42 ES023716). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or manuscript preparation. Footnotes Updated to correct minor grammatical mistakes. References 1. ↵ Piccardo MT , Geretto M , Pulliero A , Izzotti A. Odor emissions: a public health concern for health risk perception . Environ Res . 2022 ; 204 : 112121 . OpenUrl 2. ↵ Hsu YC , Cross J , Dille P , et al. Smell Pittsburgh: engaging community citizen science for air quality . ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems , 2020 ; 10 ( 4 ): 1 – 49 . OpenUrl 3. ↵ Guadalupe-Fernandez V , De Sario M , Vecchi S , et al. Industrial odour pollution and human health: a systematic review and meta-analysis . Environ Health . 2021 ; 20 : 1 – 21 . OpenUrl CrossRef PubMed 4. ↵ The CREATE Lab . Smell MyCity . [cited 2023 Aug 9 ]. Available from: https://smellmycity.org/ 5. ↵ Louisville Public Media . ‘Smell MyCity’ Is Louisville’s Smell Something, Say Something App . [cited 2025 May 15 ]. Available from: https://www.lpm.org/news/2019-03-30/smell-mycity-is-louisvilles-smell-something-say-something-app 6. ↵ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . PLACES 2022 . [cited 2024 Nov 6 ]. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/places Accessed 7. ↵ United State Census Bureau . Jefferson County, Kentucky. Population, Census , July 1, 2024 . [cited 2025 May 14 ]. Available from: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/jeffersoncountykentucky/POP010220532 8. ↵ Kentucky State Data Center . Chickasaw Neighborhood Profile . 2017 . [cited 2025 May 14 ]. Available from: http://ksdc.louisville.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Chickasaw.pdf 9. ↵ Air Pollution Control District . West Louisville Air Toxics Study . [cited 2025 May 15 ]. Available from: https://louisvilleky.gov/government/air-pollution-control-district/west-louisville-air-toxics-study 10. ↵ Den Broeder L , Devilee J , Van Oers H , Schuit AJ , Wagemakers A. Citizen science for public health . Health Promot Int . 2018 ; 33 ( 3 ): 505 – 14 . OpenUrl CrossRef PubMed 11. ↵ Jia C , Holt J , Nicholson H , et al. Identification of origins and influencing factors of environmental odor episodes using trajectory and proximity analyses . J Environ Manage . 2021 ; 295 : 113084 . OpenUrl PubMed View the discussion thread. Back to top Previous Next Posted May 15, 2025. Download PDF Data/Code Email Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about medRxiv. NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article. Your Email * Your Name * Send To * Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas. You are going to email the following Resident Odor Reports and Differing Health Outcomes in Areas of Industrial Emission Odor, Louisville, Kentucky Message Subject (Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from medRxiv Message Body (Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the medRxiv website. Your Personal Message CAPTCHA This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. Share Resident Odor Reports and Differing Health Outcomes in Areas of Industrial Emission Odor, Louisville, Kentucky Angelina Rangel , Lauren B. Anderson , Rochelle H. Holm , Ted Smith medRxiv 2025.05.13.25327517; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.13.25327517 Share This Article: Copy Citation Tools Resident Odor Reports and Differing Health Outcomes in Areas of Industrial Emission Odor, Louisville, Kentucky Angelina Rangel , Lauren B. Anderson , Rochelle H. Holm , Ted Smith medRxiv 2025.05.13.25327517; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.13.25327517 Citation Manager Formats BibTeX Bookends EasyBib EndNote (tagged) EndNote 8 (xml) Medlars Mendeley Papers RefWorks Tagged Ref Manager RIS Zotero Tweet Widget Facebook Like Google Plus One Subject Area Public and Global Health Subject Areas All Articles Addiction Medicine (568) Allergy and Immunology (863) Anesthesia (300) Cardiovascular Medicine (4435) Dentistry and Oral Medicine (444) Dermatology (382) Emergency Medicine (608) Endocrinology (including Diabetes Mellitus and Metabolic Disease) (1509) Epidemiology (15229) Forensic Medicine (30) Gastroenterology (1124) Genetic and Genomic Medicine (6600) Geriatric Medicine (668) Health Economics (997) Health Informatics (4536) Health Policy (1368) Health Systems and Quality Improvement (1613) Hematology (541) HIV/AIDS (1264) Infectious Diseases (except HIV/AIDS) (15916) Intensive Care and Critical Care Medicine (1103) Medical Education (623) Medical Ethics (146) Nephrology (667) Neurology (6599) Nursing (346) Nutrition (998) Obstetrics and Gynecology (1144) Occupational and Environmental Health (957) Oncology (3332) Ophthalmology (974) Orthopedics (369) Otolaryngology (420) Pain Medicine (436) Palliative Medicine (130) Pathology (663) Pediatrics (1693) Pharmacology and Therapeutics (691) Primary Care Research (711) Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology (5447) Public and Global Health (9232) Radiology and Imaging (2198) Rehabilitation Medicine and Physical Therapy (1370) Respiratory Medicine (1196) Rheumatology (593) Sexual and Reproductive Health (712) Sports Medicine (530) Surgery (712) Toxicology (99) Transplantation (289) Urology (265) (function(){function c(){var b=a.contentDocument||a.contentWindow.document;if(b){var d=b.createElement('script');d.innerHTML="window.__CF$cv$params={r:'a00c6d48dc3ddb75',t:'MTc3OTYyNzAzNQ=='};var a=document.createElement('script');a.src='/cdn-cgi/challenge-platform/scripts/jsd/main.js';document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(a);";b.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(d)}}if(document.body){var a=document.createElement('iframe');a.height=1;a.width=1;a.style.position='absolute';a.style.top=0;a.style.left=0;a.style.border='none';a.style.visibility='hidden';document.body.appendChild(a);if('loading'!==document.readyState)c();else if(window.addEventListener)document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded',c);else{var e=document.onreadystatechange||function(){};document.onreadystatechange=function(b){e(b);'loading'!==document.readyState&&(document.onreadystatechange=e,c())}}}})();