10 Worst Odors In The World

When we look at someone’s face it’s the nose that comes first in contact with your eyes. One of the most important senses yet ignored very often. The sense of smell is effortless and gets quite exciting sometimes. This is probably the only sense which all individuals without any physical or mental challenge can comfortably enjoy. 

This might sound appalling, but our nose consists of 12 million olfactory receptor cells which can detect over 10,000 different odors. Moreover, odors can affect an individual’s mood, his emotions and even memory. Thus, surrounding yourself with great odors can increase your chances of living a happier life while also remembering those great experiences. And we love to surround ourselves with pleasant odors like that of wonderful scents or flowers or freshly baked bread but pungent aromas are an inseparable part of the environment. 

We cannot help but come across these odors in everyday activities. Here are some of the most disgusting odors that people have experienced in their day to day life. 

10. Human/Animal Feces

You will definitely agree to this. We experience this every morning and the reason for their pungency is apparent. Bacterial presence in human and animal waste is the cause of this awful smell. Our food intake in the body is expelled in two ways: urine and feces. Feces has more powerful stench as compared to urine especially when green vegetables or food containing lots of fat are consumed.

9. Bad Fish

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Fresh seafood is odorless or smells somewhat like fresh sea air but fishes that have gone off have an undeniably offensive odor. For those who cannot resist such odor may puke at the very instance. This holds especially true for those who restrain themselves from eating fish such as the vegetarians. 

8. Decaying / Burnt flesh

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Have you ever burnt your fingers accidentally while cooking or burning a matchstick? If yes, then you know the slight scent of burnt flesh in the most minor form. A smell multipliable ten times to it will let you understand the true meaning of what rescue workers and firefighters experience almost every day all their life. Rotting flesh has an equally repugnant smell. The smell is caused by rotting and bacterial infection. In fact bedsores also release similar smells.

7. Hoatzin

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Hoatzin is one of the worst smelling birds on the planet. The bird owns a rightfully earned name i.e. the stinkbird. It is common for animals to release undesirable odors but stinkbird has an awful smell as a part of its defense mechanism. It digests its food through foregut fermentation. Bacteria break down the food it has eaten in its fermentation chamber. The process can also be seen in cows. Despite the bird’s good taste and flying abilities, it is chosen only by the desperate hungry people who are hunting down for food.

6. Sewers

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Sewers have been the cause of deaths of many. The combined mix of waste material coming from hundreds of homes and the discarded open air sewage gives an unbearable nasty smell that is next to impossible to bear. Knowing about the oddities that human beings dispose via toilets plus the other garbage, you have the revolting scent that you can die for. 

5. Vieux Boulogne Cheese

Cheese is definitely not the best smelling product coming out of cow. Researchers of Cranfield University on a day in November 2004, set themselves out to determine the worst smelling cheese out of 15 French and British cheeses. Vieux Boulogne Cheese won the title and it deserves this. It is an unpasteurized, unpressed cheese made out of cow’s milk in the Pas-de-Calais département around the town of Boulogne-sur-Mer in France. The cheese is soft and elastic. The terrible smell comes from the beer’s bacteria that act like enzymes on the cheese since it is washed in beer during production. The same institution conducted a follow-up test in March 2007 with electronic nose sensors. This test reaffirmed that Vieux Boulogne is the smelliest cheese in the whole world.

4. Century Egg

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Eggs constitute for many people’s breakfast. Whether eating boiled, fried or raw, they are rich in taste and nutritional value. They smell really good when bought fresh and its taste is all that anyone can demand for. However, one Chinese egg called the Century Egg smells so bad that it will make you wonder how people love eating these eggs. Call it their love for the egg or their tolerance power that they can overcome the smell and gather the courage to put them in their mouths.

The egg is preserved in the mixture of ash, clay, salt, rice and lime for weeks or months. After the preservation is done, a creamy dark green pungent smelling yolk and a dark brown egg white is revealed inside the shell. It’s smell can also be described very close to that of the smells of ammonia and sulphur. 

3. Hydrogen Sulphide

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One of the worst smelling gases from a laboratory is Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S). The smell of this colorless gas is a seriously terrible stench. It relates to that of rotten eggs. It is also similar to that of sewers and swamps where bacteria break down organic matter. Apart from its disgusting smell, this gas is also corrosive, flammable, explosive and poisonous.

2. Amorphophallus Titanum (Corpse Flower)

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Flowers always remind you of fresh scents and fragrances and you like to smell them when you see them. But when Amorphophallus Titanum is flowering, you automatically stay away from it. The strong decomposing odor coming from it will make you wonder whether it’s a flower or not. 

Also known as Corpse Flower, it only emits pungent stench when blooming. Its odor is similar to that of a rotting meat or decaying corpse. This stink attracts special pollinators that help in the growth of species. These pollinators include dung beetles, fresh flies and some carnivorous insects that are attracted through awful smell. The flower is indigenous to Sumatra in Indonesia. It takes a long time in flowering. 

1. Durian 

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Durian is an indigenous fruit of Malaysia but very common in South East Asia. Most people of South East Asia love the fruit but many other also find an appalling smell to it. Some even describe its odor as that of feces or rotting onions or the worst of all, turpentine and gym socks mixed together. The reason behind its nasty smell is the emission of 44 terribly smelling compounds Methanethiol (smells like rotten cabbage) and ethanethiol (smells like onions) from the fruit. 

Owing to its odor, Durian is banned in some places including Singapore. The natives of South East Asia use this as an ingredient in their traditional dishes and anti-fever medicine. Some even use it as an aphrodisiac.