Have you ever lived near or smelled a paper mill??
By Stephanie5
@Stephanie5 (2946)
United States
March 19, 2007 12:51pm CST
OH MY GOSH!! The smell is absolutely HORRIBLE!!! It smells worse than anything I've ever smelt before. When I first got here, the wind must of been blowing a different direction or something because I didn't smell it. But NOW, I smell it and it's enough to literally make you vomit. I guess you'll get used to eventually, but ewwwww it's nasty.
I've also lived by a pork-processing plant...that doesn't smell to pleasent either but it's better than this smell.
Have you ever put up with a stinky smell where you've lived???
12 people like this
33 responses
@theproperator (2429)
• United States
19 Mar 07
There is a paper mill in one of the towns we drive thru to visit my BF's family, and it is truly awful smelling. We don't even pass that close to the mill, but we roll up the windows and turn off and close the vents in the car. Even after doing all that, we can still smell the stink from the factory. Ugh! I have worked at kennels and stables and cleaned up other nasty stuff in my life and I can't imagine ever being able to get used to that smell of a paper mill.
5 people like this
@limcyjain (3516)
• India
19 Mar 07
My father is a bank manager and before my marriage i happened to live in a town with a large paper mill although away from home i have experienced the smell and wondered how people who actually work there tolerate it. It's really stinky.
5 people like this
@blueskies (1186)
• United States
19 Mar 07
We lived right next to a sauerkraut factory for several years. I could live with the vinegar/sauerkraut smell, it wasn't too bad. What was nearly unbearable was the smell of the cabbage scraps rotting in the fields around us all year long. They plowed the cabbage scraps into the dirt and just let them rot. I actually developed severe mold allergies while we lived there---allergies to the types of mold that grow on rotting vegetation.
4 people like this
@kyran_12 (643)
• India
19 Mar 07
yea i have seen people leaving or staying besides the mill, but then i never been so close to it as from my resident, its smell like hell man , the masquito problem is the other thing to deal with but then the river we had besides the house was too much dirty thing than any other i have ever seen,..its very insane having it near the residential area or in the part of the city also..its should be away from the city always or it stink like hell man
@kurtbiewald (2625)
• United States
19 Mar 07
I have smelled one
AWFUL
would not live near one.
3 people like this
@Penfencer (297)
• United States
19 Mar 07
I've driven past paper mills before. Can't say I've ever had to live next to one of them, though, thankfully. Maybe putting some scented candles and such in your house could help a little? I don't know. The paper mill smell may be so overbearing that it wouldn't help.
The only stinky smell I've had to put up with in a living arrangement was my former roommate's feet. Heh.
5 people like this
@addysmum (1225)
• Canada
20 Mar 07
I grew up in a mill town with a mill working father, I have to say it smells bad but not near as bad as a beef processing plant. I ran from Cargill in Alberta and got sick, have to say all the times I was in the mill with my dad I never got sick from it.
1 person likes this
@ladygator (3465)
• United States
19 Mar 07
I lived by one a looonng time ago. I think I remember the stink very faintly.
@chertsy (3798)
• United States
19 Mar 07
Bless your heart. Growing up we visited a paper mill, to learn how paper is made. The smell could knock down the strongest man. To me it smelt of millions of rotting eggs, the smell just hits you in the face. I think a water treatment plant is just as bad and maybe even worse. That smells of a skunk with rotten eggs. I don't know what to say to help get rid of the smell from coming into your home, except the frebreeze and lots of it. Air fresher plug ins, and lots and lots of candles.
@lvap0628 (731)
• Philippines
20 Mar 07
Never mind the smell, Stephanie5. It's your health you should worry about. We used to live about 5 km from a Paper Mill. And every morning and near evening our nostrils are filled with the smell of wood being turned to pulp then to paper, especially when the wind is blowing our way. The people living in the vicinity of the plant petitioned the gov't to have it closed because within 5 years from the plant's operations some people had lung problems, developed asthma, etc.
1 person likes this
@addysmum (1225)
• Canada
20 Mar 07
There is nothing that comes out of a paper mill that can cause health problems. In North America more so in the US then Canada but Canada is close behind there emissions are so tightly controlled that all you are seeing is mostly steam some smoke. The ash fall out happens on shut done. The smell is nothing that can harm you. Asthma is a condition that you have not develop. Most mills have what they call a bug plant that grows good bacteria to eat any waste so that the mills today are almost waste free. My fathers mill is 98% waste free and is modeled after a mill in the Souther states that my dad and his co-workers went to see to get their ideas from.
1 person likes this
@lvap0628 (731)
• Philippines
22 Mar 07
I'm from the Philippines, addysmum, and sometimes factory owners here are not too concerned with the environment. This plant I was talking about operated over 15 years ago. Their machines were not as advanced as yours and they did not take the necessary precautions to safeguard health.
1 person likes this
@Kelvin838 (37)
• United States
19 Mar 07
Nope. But I've been over to some chicken factories and they smell quite bad.
2 people like this
@AxranraRose82 (1120)
• United States
20 Mar 07
We live about 25-30 miles from a papermill. Whenever the wind blows just right we will be saturated with an awful, horrid smell! When we smell it we don't refer to the actual plant name but say that we are smelling "Spring Grove" which is the name of the city. That is just like us PAers to blame it on the whole town rather than the plant that pays its workers quite well but is the real culprit for the stench!
I can't believe that a pork processing plant could smell worse than a paper mill!!!
@BLACKROSE78 (92)
• Canada
20 Mar 07
I have lived near a paper mill,you never get use to that smell,I had to move away to get away from it,could not stand it anymore
1 person likes this
@addysmum (1225)
• Canada
20 Mar 07
The mill that my dad works at gets calls all the time to shut down. The silly thing is the people built around the mill. All these rich people bought land for the views built their big homes then discovered the smell when they moved in. Now they want the mill the shut down and move so they don't have to live with it. The town peoples opinion of it is you built there you sell and move.
1 person likes this
@missyd79 (3438)
• United States
22 Mar 07
well when i go to the mall closest to my house, I first have to pass a pig farm and that smells pretty bad. then i have to go past a mushroom factory where they have piles and piles of mushroom soil outside and that smells really bad because it is a mixture of cow and horse manuire (poop) and dirt and it is the worse smelling thing in the world.
1 person likes this
@kareng (54665)
• United States
20 Mar 07
I had to immediately laugh when I read this title. I am from a small town that had a paper mill. When we lived there it didn't bother us. But each visit back home was aweful as you described. It hit us when we would first enter town and you could smell it everywhere, no hiding from it!
Residents do get used to it as I can remember when we lived there it didn't bother us but when visitors came it was the first thing they commented on! There is nothing worse than a rotten egg smell that won't go away!
1 person likes this
@revdauphinee (5703)
• United States
19 Mar 07
yes I have in moss point mississippi its is realy bAd although i admit i lived there long enough i got used to it untill I went on vacation then you always knew you were home cause the smell always greeted you!
1 person likes this
@Stephanie5 (2946)
• United States
20 Mar 07
I live in Bogalusa, Louisiana...I guess this town is famous for their stinky paper mill, lol. Thanks for tbe response!
1 person likes this
