Merged No Planes At WTC (Split from: WTC Dust)

[WTC Dust]

Metal Has No Smell

By Amos Zeeberg (Discover Web Editor) | October 26, 2006 6:00 pm
So you know how if you’ve been handling coins you get that distinctive whiff of metal? Or how the water from the fountain in the back end of your elementary school tasted pretty much like the smell of those coins? You were wrong—metal has no smell.

According to a Nature news article about a recent study in the famous Angewandte Chemie Internation Edition, what we think of as the smell of metal is actually the smell of our own body. When we come into contact with metal, it catalyzes reactions among the slime of organic molecules that coats our bodies. When skin oils are exposed to iron and copper they can produce smelly aldehydes and ketones; for instance, touching iron can produce the ketone 1-octen-3-one, which has a mushroom-like, metallic odor (which, I’m guessing, can’t be good).
One thing (among many) that seems weird to me about this is that I could swear that I’ve smelled metal that hasn’t touched my skin or the skin of someone near me. Maybe it’s possible that someone touched it in the past and although they’re long gone, their fetid, decomposing skin oils linger on. Or maybe that’s an effect of being an animal—unlike, say a dog—that usually brings smellable items up to the nose rather than the other way around.

Googled " Does Iron smell" answer 0.22 seconds

This doesn't reference tiny particles of inhaled iron, which is what caused the pain and the strange smell.

 

[WTC Dust]

Sod any accepted analytical techniques to identify particles - just use Dusty's nose. Hey, Dusty how much does it cost to hire your nose and how many companies have you hired it out to?

I go by WTC Dust or Tracy. Or Dr. Blevins, if that's important to you.

 

[WTC Dust]

Dear WTC Dust,

I have just one question:

Can you point us to one person, only one single person, in the entire world who believes you are actually onto something with your 9/11 research? Just one name? A link, quote, citiation would be nice, too.

If there is not one person living in the world today who gives a crap about your fantasies, why should anyone care and respond?

Hmmm. One person? Probably not. But there's always tomorrow.

 

[newyorkguy]

Isn't this the same guy who wanted to know who gave the FBI the names of the hijackers? The "smell" is also a standard 9/11 truth "belief."

As a New Yorker, Bleeker Street (where he says he lives) is over a mile from the WTC site. I was around there too in the days after. I don't remember the smell as being overwhelming. I think a lot had to do with the way the wind was blowing.

A friend of mine who works on the West Side said it smelled to him like burned wiring. I would describe it as the smell you get when there's been a really major fire in the neighborhood.

I don't have a degree in pharmacology, though.

 

[WTC Dust]

And on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Based on your posts in another thread, I find these assertions difficult to believe.

You could ask me something about smell, if you have doubts. Or pretty much anything at all in biology or chemistry.

 

[WTC Dust]

Whiskey bottles, and brand new cars*
Oak tree you're in my way*
There's too much coke and too much smoke*
Look what's going on inside you*
Ooooh that smell*
Can't you smell that smell*
Ooooh that smell*
The smell of death surrounds you*

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/lynyrd+skynyrd/that+smell_20086165.html

If you can be dispassionate and clinical for a moment, you've hit on the important part. The smell of death did not last. By this I mean the smell of dead human beings. It didn't last very long.

Contrary to this, the other component of the smell, the part that was painful to the nose and lips, lasted for at least 100 days, as strong as it was in the first few days.

Nothing yet, and I include my own work on this subject, is a proper explanation for the long lasting smells coming from Ground Zero. It wasn't dead people. It wasn't a hydrocarbon fire. My theory is that it was iron particles from a slow reaction taking place converting the remaining WTC building materials into fine iron powder.

 

[Spindrift]

This doesn't reference tiny particles of inhaled iron, which is what caused the pain and the strange smell.

So big pieces of iron have no smell but tiny particles do? Why?

 

[WTC Dust]

Not good enough. Prove what you smelled or think you smelled was inconsistent with the fire resulting from the aircraft impacts. Show your work.

What do you suggest was causing the smell?

 

[Dash80]

You could ask me something about smell, if you have doubts. Or pretty much anything at all in biology or chemistry.

What is it that makes your imaginary weapons smell?

Wouldn't asbestos, chemicals and ground glass cause pain if you breathe it in?

 

[WTC Dust]

Isn't this the same guy who wanted to know who gave the FBI the names of the hijackers? The "smell" is also a standard 9/11 truth "belief."

As a New Yorker, Bleeker Street (where he says he lives) is over a mile from the WTC site. I was around there too in the days after. I don't remember the smell as being overwhelming. I think a lot had to do with the way the wind was blowing.

A friend of mine who works on the West Side said it smelled to him like burned wiring. I would describe it as the smell you get when there's been a really major fire in the neighborhood.

I don't have a degree in pharmacology, though.

The smell came and went, depending on which way the wind was blowing. When the wind blew northwards, we'd get hit with it.

 

[Dash80]

If you can be dispassionate and clinical for a moment, you've hit on the important part. The smell of death did not last. By this I mean the smell of dead human beings. It didn't last very long.

Contrary to this, the other component of the smell, the part that was painful to the nose and lips, lasted for at least 100 days, as strong as it was in the first few days.

Nothing yet, and I include my own work on this subject, is a proper explanation for the long lasting smells coming from Ground Zero. It wasn't dead people. It wasn't a hydrocarbon fire. My theory is that it was iron particles from a slow reaction taking place converting the remaining WTC building materials into fine iron powder.

I got that song stuck in my head, thanks

 

[Lenbrazil]

I'm sure I know more about smell than anyone else here. Ground Zero stank.

Let's see we had the decomposing remains of thousands and all sorts of compounds burning (including some of those remains) and tens to hundreds of thousands of tons of building materials and contents turned to dust so it is no surprise "Ground Zero stank".

 

[WTC Dust]

So big pieces of iron have no smell but tiny particles do? Why?

Smell results from a chemical reaction, more precisely a "binding reaction", between the chemical and smell receptors located in your nose. Smell receptors are cell surface molecules that cause intracellular changes in specific nerve cells. These signals are relayed to the brain, and interpreted by the brain.

All smells involve tiny amounts of chemicals rising through the air and landing on your cell receptors.

In this case, the WTC stench was more than just a smell, although there was a kind of smell to it that is unmistakeable, despite the inability to objectively identify it. The other component to the smell was tingling, even pain, in the nose and lips.

My theory is that small particles of finely powdered iron were interacting with cell surface receptors that were sending electrical signals to smell centers in the brain, which was interpreting the smell as "such and such" as it interprets every smell. That "such and such" is unforgettable. Millions of New Yorkers would recognize it if they ever saw it again, even though it doesn't now have a proper name.

The other component of the smell, the pain, was probably caused by cellular damage caused by the iron particles landing on your sensitive mucosa.

 

[WTC Dust]

What is it that makes your imaginary weapons smell?

Wouldn't asbestos, chemicals and ground glass cause pain if you breathe it in?

It has to to with the utter uniqueness of the smell and the timing and intensity of the smell. I continued to smell it every now and then when I lived next door to the Deutsche Bank, until they completely deconstructed that building. So you have to take in both the nature of the smell and the timing.

 

[WTC Dust]

Let's see we had the decomposing remains of thousands and all sorts of compounds burning (including some of those remains) and tens to hundreds of thousands of tons of building materials and contents turned to dust so it is no surprise "Ground Zero stank".

Yeah, but I was a near-constant observer of the smells coming from Ground Zero. The timing and the changing smells are relevant here, and certainly relevant to my background in biomedical science.

I, perhaps more than anyone living within a couple of miles of Ground Zero during important stretches of time, focused on the smell.

 

[newyorkguy]

The smell came and went, depending on which way the wind was blowing. When the wind blew northwards, we'd get hit with it.

I smelled it too. To me it smelled like the odor you always smell when there's been a big fire in the neighborhood.

To you it smelled like...tiny iron particles? I would say okay, so what?, except...

I notice your footer says the WTC didn't collapse, it turned to dust while standing and then collapsed. So I'm guessing you're a conspiracy theorist and thus everything you allege has to be seen with that understanding.

 

[Dash80]

It has to to with the utter uniqueness of the smell and the timing and intensity of the smell. I continued to smell it every now and then when I lived next door to the Deutsche Bank, until they completely deconstructed that building. So you have to take in both the nature of the smell and the timing.

Doesn't even answer the questions I asked.

The smell was unique because no 110 storey buildings have ever had planes smashed into them, burned and collapsed with thousands of people inside them.

 

[newyorkguy]

Wake Up and Smell the Aluminothermic Nanocomposite Explosives As Documentation of Thermitic Materials in the WTC Twin Towers Grows, Official Story Backers Ignore, Deny, Evade, and Dissemble by Jim Hoffman

I think this is where he's going with this. It's from a 9/11 conspiracy site. Primarily critical of the NIST study. I can't post a link 'cause I'm a newbie.

 

[Spindrift]

Smell results from a chemical reaction, more precisely a "binding reaction", between the chemical and smell receptors located in your nose. Smell receptors are cell surface molecules that cause intracellular changes in specific nerve cells. These signals are relayed to the brain, and interpreted by the brain.

All smells involve tiny amounts of chemicals rising through the air and landing on your cell receptors.

In this case, the WTC stench was more than just a smell, although there was a kind of smell to it that is unmistakeable, despite the inability to objectively identify it. The other component to the smell was tingling, even pain, in the nose and lips.

My theory is that small particles of finely powdered iron were interacting with cell surface receptors that were sending electrical signals to smell centers in the brain, which was interpreting the smell as "such and such" as it interprets every smell. That "such and such" is unforgettable. Millions of New Yorkers would recognize it if they ever saw it again, even though it doesn't now have a proper name.

The other component of the smell, the pain, was probably caused by cellular damage caused by the iron particles landing on your sensitive mucosa.

Any validation of that theory?

 

[Dog Town]

I think this is where she's going with this.

ftfy