RedEye
Now that the cigarette smoke has cleared, thanks to the ban that went into effect in January, bar goers are sniffing some bad odors.
"When it's emptier, [a bar] smells like stale beer, spilled alcohol, frat house," said Brittany Allan, 21, a student living in Gold Coast.
While taking a break from work downtown, Rahim Slaise, 32, recalled smelling scents of "overbearing cologne, a musk and body odor" at clubs recently.
Using odor-gauging equipment called a Nasal Ranger field olfactometer, smell expert Dr. Alan Hirsch identified 46 different odors at a Gold Coast bar in May for a study sponsored by Axe, maker of body sprays. The top odor contributors were a musty/earthy/moldy smell that tends to come from wood, a urine-like scent, a sour/acid/vinegar odor that could come from residual alcohol, and of course the odors of sweat and beer.
"The bar is a three times more intense smell than the McCormick Place men's room, or 15 times more or 16 times more intense odor than a coffee shop, and was almost twice as smelly as an animal shelter," said Hirsch, founder of Chicago's Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, citing odor intensity levels.
While secondhand smoke is hazardous to our health, the smoke hid some of the stink.
"You could think of the smoke being background noise and the music playing and you turn it off and all of the sudden other noises in the bar would pop up," said Dr. Robert Kern, professor and chairman of the department of otolaryngology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Indeed, smoking bans are having some unintended consequences, said Avery Gilbert, author of "What the Nose Knows."
Smoke masked other scents in bars and restaurants. Without that smoke, you're left with odors of "fry vat if it's a tavern place, hamburgers if there's a grill.
And you're getting exposed to all these other things: body odor, perspirants, and deodorants and body sprays like Axe and smelly clothes," said Gilbert, who was not involved with the Axe study. "If you're in a club dancing and sweating up a storm, and if you're there long enough, your clothes will smell a bit."
To get rid of bad odors, bars should maximize ventilation or even inject a scent into the air, said Hirsch, the smell expert. "You could place an aroma at a bar that people like. They will perceive the environment to be more friendly, be happy at the bar and meet more people at the bar," he said.
At least one local bar is doing just that.
The Crimson Lounge at the Hotel Sax downtown developed a signature scent even before the smoking ban called suha, a fusion of pomegranate, cinnamon, nutmeg, patchouli, sandalwood, cypress, cedar and vanilla.
Dispensed through a programmed and timed device, the scent was created to evoke the dark yet cozy lounge feel, said Adam Kaplan, hotel marketing director. "We wanted to create an experience that we're an upscale, musically driven lounge," he said. Still, many bar hoppers in Chicago say they'd take bad odors over smoke.
"When you go home, you don't smell like all those things at the club," said Slaise, a business analyst who lives in South Shore. "They don't retain on the clothing like smoke does."
Original here
Now that the cigarette smoke has cleared, thanks to the ban that went into effect in January, bar goers are sniffing some bad odors.
"When it's emptier, [a bar] smells like stale beer, spilled alcohol, frat house," said Brittany Allan, 21, a student living in Gold Coast.
While taking a break from work downtown, Rahim Slaise, 32, recalled smelling scents of "overbearing cologne, a musk and body odor" at clubs recently.
Using odor-gauging equipment called a Nasal Ranger field olfactometer, smell expert Dr. Alan Hirsch identified 46 different odors at a Gold Coast bar in May for a study sponsored by Axe, maker of body sprays. The top odor contributors were a musty/earthy/moldy smell that tends to come from wood, a urine-like scent, a sour/acid/vinegar odor that could come from residual alcohol, and of course the odors of sweat and beer.
"The bar is a three times more intense smell than the McCormick Place men's room, or 15 times more or 16 times more intense odor than a coffee shop, and was almost twice as smelly as an animal shelter," said Hirsch, founder of Chicago's Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, citing odor intensity levels.
While secondhand smoke is hazardous to our health, the smoke hid some of the stink.
"You could think of the smoke being background noise and the music playing and you turn it off and all of the sudden other noises in the bar would pop up," said Dr. Robert Kern, professor and chairman of the department of otolaryngology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Indeed, smoking bans are having some unintended consequences, said Avery Gilbert, author of "What the Nose Knows."
Smoke masked other scents in bars and restaurants. Without that smoke, you're left with odors of "fry vat if it's a tavern place, hamburgers if there's a grill.
And you're getting exposed to all these other things: body odor, perspirants, and deodorants and body sprays like Axe and smelly clothes," said Gilbert, who was not involved with the Axe study. "If you're in a club dancing and sweating up a storm, and if you're there long enough, your clothes will smell a bit."
To get rid of bad odors, bars should maximize ventilation or even inject a scent into the air, said Hirsch, the smell expert. "You could place an aroma at a bar that people like. They will perceive the environment to be more friendly, be happy at the bar and meet more people at the bar," he said.
At least one local bar is doing just that.
The Crimson Lounge at the Hotel Sax downtown developed a signature scent even before the smoking ban called suha, a fusion of pomegranate, cinnamon, nutmeg, patchouli, sandalwood, cypress, cedar and vanilla.
Dispensed through a programmed and timed device, the scent was created to evoke the dark yet cozy lounge feel, said Adam Kaplan, hotel marketing director. "We wanted to create an experience that we're an upscale, musically driven lounge," he said. Still, many bar hoppers in Chicago say they'd take bad odors over smoke.
"When you go home, you don't smell like all those things at the club," said Slaise, a business analyst who lives in South Shore. "They don't retain on the clothing like smoke does."
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