The smell of sulfur in Paris still without origin

• A strong smell of sulfur, close to the rotten egg, was felt Sunday evening in Ile-de-France.
• Air analyzes conducted by the central laboratory of the Prefecture of Police did not explain this sulfur odor.
• Several hypotheses have been advanced but to date, none has really imposed itself and it is likely that the mystery remains unresolved.

The mystery thickens around the smell of sulfur that was felt in Ile-de-France Sunday evening. Late Monday evening, the central laboratory of the Paris Prefecture of Police unveiled its analyzes of air samples and here is its conclusion: "These analyzes did not identify any particular compound, in particular sulfur, which could have been the origin of these odors. The Prefecture of Police also recalls that it has not been informed of any event of the industrial incident type in the region which could have been the source. So white cabbage.

#Environment | A smell of sulfur was felt last night over part of the Ile de France region. The central laboratory of @prefpolice carried out analyzes.
Read our press release. pic.twitter.com/wynRF3L7vB

As a reminder, the smell, comparable to that of rotten egg, has been reported by many Internet users on social networks. Ile-de-France firefighters, who received numerous calls, assured that it was not linked to "no particular intervention in progress".

Smell of sulfur felt in several departments probably linked to recent bad weather. Taken into account, this odor does not correspond to any particular intervention in progress. Please only dial 18-112 in the event of a proven emergency. pic.twitter.com/oIwODSbgzY

Emmanuel Grégoire, first deputy to the mayor of Paris, then spoke on Twitter of the track of “heavy precipitation”. "It could be linked to the mixing of sewerage networks because of the heavy rains which bring up the decomposition gases," he wrote. Las, Siaap (Interdepartmental Syndicate for the sanitation of the Parisian agglomeration), affirmed to have not noted any anomaly on its systems in spite of controls Sunday and Monday and that "the origin of the odors felt by the population does not come of the sanitation system ”.

.No fire or industrial incident has been reported. The “sulfur” odor could be linked to heavy precipitation. Checks in progress.

AirParif, for its part, notes "no increases in the concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide or particles", elements that they monitor daily. However, the air quality monitoring organization indicates that it is possible that this odor comes from low-polluting but super-odorous molecules. “The nose is the best detector, even with very low concentration rates. "

Emmanuel Grégoire also put forward the hypothesis of "a cloud of sulfur dioxide arriving from abroad". The wave of cold air coming from the North would have brought down the smells of the Benelux and England towards the Paris region. But the results of the analysis conducted by the Paris Prefecture of Police tend to invalidate this hypothesis.

#Sulfur odor in IDF? it is linked to the change in air mass and the sudden arrival of cold North Sea air, also reducing odors to Paris. As for the "orange" sky above the Capital, it is due to the reflection of city lights on the low clouds ☁️ https://t.co/YpHtumvWJ3

Finally, Météo France has no explanation for these odors either, but intends to dig deeper into the subject. "The fairly strong thermal contrasts of the weekend, at least ten degrees, could explain this smell," says the weather service, without going much further. It is therefore likely that we never know the end of the story.

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• Paris
• Air pollution
• Airparif