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Resident Odor Reports and Differing Health Outcomes in Areas of High Industrial Emission Odor, Louisville, Kentucky

Rangel, A.; Anderson, L.; Holm, R. H.; Smith, T. R.

2025-05-13 public and global health
10.1101/2025.05.13.25327517 medRxiv
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BackgroundEnvironmental odors can impact health and risk perception. Participatory, or citizen science, can provide important data through systematic, mobile application assisted odor reporting. ObjectivesThis study leverages participatory public health science using the Smell MyCity app to investigate resident-reported odors and their association with health outcomes in Louisville, KY. MethodsWe analyzed 6,868 odor reports from 2018 to 2024, to identify census tracts where industrial and chemical odor reports cluster. Disease prevalence from the CDCs PLACES data were compared between these tracts and the entire county. ResultsResults suggest associations between frequent odor reporting areas and increased health risks, highlighting the public health significance of environmental odors and the importance of community-driven data collection. ConclusionsThis community-driven reporting initiative may be a useful addition to health research in areas which also have high industrial emission odor.

Published in Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action · not in our set (fewer than 10 published preprints to learn from) · training set

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