After doing about two decades of spill cleanup on active Navy ships, I would NEVER trust a nose to identify, even a tentative semi-quantitative I-think-it-smells-like try-ethyl merman. As with other responses, physically hunt for source(s) and / collect some samples.
George Walton
Reactives Management Corporation
1025 Executive Blvd., Suite 101
Chesapeake, VA 23320
Office: 757-436-1033 Fax: 757-548-2808
From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU] On Behalf Of Dan Herrick
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2012 4:08 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] odor question
Greetings all,
We are investigating an Indoor Air Quality issue in an infrequently used faculty office which is full of books, papers, a computer server, etc. The odor is mothballs, and we cannot locate the source. (Believe me, we've been trying!) We've done a lot of work already, investigating, ruling things out, etc. My question to this list is:
Has anyone had an odor issue where a mothball odor was caused by something other than mothballs?
I am aware that the chemical which causes the distinctive odor in mothballs is either naphthalene (older products) or 1,4-Dichlorobenzene (newer products). This faculty member is not doing any chemistry but rather investigates materials and their mechanical properties.
All thoughts are appreciated.
Thank you,
Dan
--------------------------------------------------------------
Daniel C. Herrick
EHS Coordinator, MIT
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Laboratory for Manufacturing & Productivity (LMP)
Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE)
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
email herrickd**At_Symbol_Here**mit.edu
phone 617-253-2338
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 3-056
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307