BrainStuff Classics: Why Does Gasoline Smell So Good?

Some of you are giving this episode title serious side-eye, but believe us: some other folks think gasoline smells excellent. Delicious, even. Learn why in this episode of BrainStuff.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,
I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today's episode is a classic from
our erstwhile host, Christian Sagar. This one was a script
in our old YouTube days, and we found that it
was one of our most controversial Why does gasoline smell
so good? For those of you thinking what gasoline smells gross,

(00:24):
just believe us. For some folks, it smells delicious. Hey,
they're brain Stuff gang. I'm Christian Sagar, and have you
ever been to the gas station before filling up your
gelope when suddenly your nostril hairs twinged with an aromatic
burning sensation. It's like the wise sages of Leonard skinnerd

(00:45):
once saying, oh that smell. Can't you smell that smell?
I'm talking about gasoline, people, Why does it smell so good? Well?
The first answer is pretty simple. Actually, gasoline or petrol
as our friends across the pond like to call it,
contains a chemical hydrocarbon called benzene used to boost its
octane rating, and benzine naturally has a sweet scent to

(01:08):
it that our noses are specially sensitive to. In fact,
it evaporates so quickly that you'd smell benzene instantly if
you just put some in a dish in the same
room you're in. It is so pungent we can get
a whiff of it if there's only one to five
parts per million in the air we breathe. And benzine
is not just in gasoline. We use it in plastics, pesticides,

(01:30):
and detergents. It's also in a lot of mass produced toys,
so it's possible you're associating the smell of gasoline with
that new toys smell from your childhood. But don't let
its odor get its enchanting hooks and you too far.
Because skinnerd also had it right when they saying, oh,
that smell, the smell of death surrounds you. That's right.
The smell of benzine can be euphoric, but it's also toxic.

(01:54):
If you inhale large amounts of it, it actually attacks
your nervous system. Luckily, it's so pungent that we have
unty of warning before hazardous exposure. That's why it can
start to make you nauseous or give you a headache
after a while, and the consequences of sniffing too much
benzine and gasoline are not pretty. Inhalent abuse leads to

(02:14):
loss of consciousness, seizures, liver injury, and distress within your
heart and lungs. Keep going after that and you're looking
at neurological impairment and straight up brain damage. The E. P. A.
Osha and Who also categorized benzine as a carcinogen. The
cancers it's associated with the most are leukemia and lymphoma.
And get this, there's possibly another less dangerous reason why

(02:37):
we like the smell of gasoline so much. A study
published in two thousand nine issue of Addiction Research and
Theory indicates that gasoline smells better to us when we're hungry.
It found that people rate the smell of gasoline as
being more pleasant and intense the longer it had been
since they had last eaten. More research is obviously required,

(02:59):
but there seems to be a link between our degree
of hunger and our odor perception of gasoline. Maybe that's
why gas stations make such a killing on selling junk food.
Today's episode was written by Christian and produced by Tyler Klang.
For more on this and lots of other topics, visit
our home planet How Stuff Works Dot com