Do neighbors of smelly sites fear for their health?
“We observe great variations from one individual to another and from one community to another”, answers the DD Louise Lajoie, from the Regional Public Health Department of Montérégie.
“It’s more likely to happen when a person and those around them react physiologically to the smell,” she says.
As a physician, she has studied complaints about many smelly sites. People seem more worried – and report more symptoms – when the foul emissions occur frequently and unpredictably.
What physical symptoms are they complaining about?
Headaches, nausea, irritation … Stink victims suffer from real symptoms, Dr.r Benoît Gingras, from the Chaudière-Appalaches Regional Public Health Department. “It’s impressive to hear them. ”
As industrial effluvia are generally too little concentrated to reach the toxicity threshold, other mechanisms would be involved.
According to some studies, bad odors can exacerbate pre-existing problems such as asthma or bronchitis … but not in all patients, notes the doctor.
To escape an atrocious odor, we sometimes breathe less deeply, but more quickly, underlines for its part the DD Joy. “It can cause hyperventilation, increase the heart rate or make your chest feel tight. ”
“The reported symptoms go away with the disappearance of the substance from the air,” she says.
A question of mental health?
No study confirms that odor victims suffer more from mood disorders, answer the two doctors. One thing is certain, people very overwhelmed by foul odors often say they are depressed, anxious, angry, helpless, stressed.
Many lose sleep, says the Dr Gingras. “Some people will complain that they have difficulty concentrating. So it can even affect intellectual performance. ”
Could they develop chronic or serious illnesses?
We do not know, since there is little research on the subject and it turns out to be not very solid, replies the Dr Gingras.
The odor assessment is too complex and the symptoms reported are too subjective to be readily investigated. We cannot objectively measure a headache, nausea, fatigue. “When Public Health investigates,” said the doctor, “there is no physical examination, no validation of the ailments reported. ”
We know, on the other hand, that insomnia and stress are harmful and can disrupt blood pressure, heart rate, digestion …
“Some scientists believe that the stress caused by odors could also affect the immune system, and make people more likely to develop all kinds of conditions,” says Dr.r Gingras.
Will we be fixed one day?
“To my knowledge, in public health, this file is a bit of an orphan. It is therefore difficult, as a doctor, to intervene with disturbing odor emitters, ”says Dr.r Gingras.
“It would be really desirable that this be a priority, because a lot of people are exposed to unpleasant environmental odors”, he pleads.
Conversely, environmental noise – more easily quantifiable – has been studied extensively and is officially considered to be harmful to health.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at certain noise levels, many effects are “observed with certainty”: from heart attacks to diabetes through “unfavorable pregnancy outcomes” 1.
In Quebec, a health prevention action plan therefore includes measures against noise, indicates the DD Joy.
1. According to the WHO, noise causes the following problems: cardiovascular effects, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, sleep disturbance, cognitive and learning disorders, hearing loss and tinnitus, type 2 diabetes and obesity, mental health, adverse pregnancy outcomes.