Reported volatile · the claim says “levels were substantially higher”
Among nine Hong Kong public transport modes, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene levels were substantially higher in air-conditioned buses and Mass Transit Railway trains than in the others, which the authors take to suggest additional solvent-related sources in those vehicle interiors.
Scope: Five winter months of 2001–02; it measures air composition, not odour, and the levels were within Hong Kong's health-protecting limits. CLM-COMMUTE-001 ↗
Reported volatile · the claim says “levels were substantially higher”
Among nine Hong Kong public transport modes, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene levels were substantially higher in air-conditioned buses and Mass Transit Railway trains than in the others, which the authors take to suggest additional solvent-related sources in those vehicle interiors.
Scope: Five winter months of 2001–02; it measures air composition, not odour, and the levels were within Hong Kong's health-protecting limits. CLM-COMMUTE-001 ↗
Reported volatile · the claim says “a single cycle transferred”
In 29 experiments with a household dishwasher, a single cycle transferred 96–98% of the toluene, 97–98% of the ethylbenzene and 18–55% of the acetone that had been added as test chemicals to the incoming water into the air inside the dishwasher; its low but continuous ventilation, about 5.7 litres a minute, meant these compounds built up in that enclosed air.
Scope: Tap water spiked with test chemicals to study how dishwashers release volatile compounds into indoor air; it measures air composition, not odour, and does not identify what a dishwasher ordinarily smells of. CLM-DISHWASHER-001 ↗
Checked against PubChem and Wikidata on 2026-10-05 by an automated identifier check. Every name SmellBook uses must resolve to the same single PubChem compound.
WHAT THIS MEANS
SmellBook lists a molecule only where a VERIFIED claim names it, in the role and scope that claim states. A molecule reported in a smell's evidence is not the whole smell: most smells come from many compounds together, and the studies measured particular samples, such as one cultivar, an essential oil or a cooked product.
Cite as SmellBook. (2026). ethylbenzene (molecule). SmellBook knowledge graph, unreleased changes since the dataset release of 2026-10-05. smellbook:molecule:ethylbenzene. https://smellbook.com/molecules/ethylbenzene
Dataset history Not yet in a dataset release; it will appear in the next one.