Oxyfuel's smell: a curse and a blessing?
Alaskans didn't shed many tears over the departure of oxyfuel in late December of 1992.
Some people said oxyfuel, a blend of gasoline and a chemical agent designed to reduce carbon monoxide emissions in vehicle exhaust, made them sick. Some people said it made their vehicles act as if they were sick. Everybody felt it dig deep into their pockets, as each gallon cost 14 cents more than non-oxyfuel did before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered Anchorage and Fairbanks drivers to use the fuel during the winter of 1992-1993.
But for all its negative qualities, the results of a recent study show oxyfuel has one attribute people might want to be thankful for: its funky smell.
The Alaska Division of Public Health in Fairbanks worked with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on a study in which researchers measured benzene levels in the blood of car mechanics and others who worked around oxyfuel. Benzene, a carcinogen, is a clear, aromatic liquid that makes up about five percent of the volume of Alaska fuel made from North Slope crude oil.
Researchers drew blood from people exposed to oxyfuel in November 1992, and then performed the same experiment in February 1993, after oxyfuel was no longer available at local gas stations because its use was suspended by legislative order.
Curiously, the blood benzene levels of mechanics had tripled in the February testing, when mechanics were no longer exposed to oxyfuel. Why? Mary Ellen Gordian, a medical officer and physician with the Department of Health and Social Services in Anchorage, thinks it's because oxyfuel has a distinctive odor. An Anchorage Daily News article said that oxyfuel smells like new plastic toys.
Gordian said oxyfuel acts much like the garlic scent that's added to propane, an odorless gas, so people can sniff out propane leaks. The strong smell of oxyfuel probably caused mechanics in the study to avoid it, limiting their exposure time, Gordian said. The return of non-oxygenated fuel, which doesn't have the alarming smell, may have caused mechanics to work longer in a dangerous, fume-laden environment.
Her theory gained strength in a study done by University of Alaska Fairbanks Chemistry Department Head Lawrence Duffy and biochemistry graduate student Sherri Smith. They studied the Mapco mix of oxyfuel, which was 85 parts gasoline and 15 parts MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether, a compound engineered to ensure more complete combustion of gas and therefore lower carbon monoxide and benzene emissions). They found the oxyfuel mix was eight times easier to smell than Mapco fuel without the MTBE additive, which is currently sold.
Like the stench of rotting meat would probably discourage people from eating a steak from the back of the refrigerator, Duffy and Smith said people might have associated oxyfuel's strong odor with something bad for them. After oxyfuel appeared at gas pumps around the Fairbanks North Star Borough, people began complaining about headaches, nausea, dizziness and eye, nose and throat irritations. Gordian, however, said health insurance studies showed no increase in the frequency of doctor visits compared to the two winters before oxyfuel was used, implying that oxyfuel's odor played a role in the illnesses. Researchers agree that no study has conclusively proven what caused people to feel sick during the times when oxyfuel was used.
Whatever the cause of the illnesses, Gordian thinks oxyfuel's smell served a good purpose.
"It allowed people to know they were being exposed to gasoline," Gordian said. "Poison should smell like poison. Right now, we can't smell Alaska gasoline until the concentration is very high. This increases our risk of cancer."
