# Serious questions about the smell of human poop **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 23, 2016, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683 "2016-07-23T15:36:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cjackson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@cjackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjackson)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/1 "2016-07-23T15:36:42Z")
Like the title says, I’m serious about these questions regarding the smell of human feces. 1. Who has smellier poop, men or women? 2. Is there any difference between the feces of men and women? Or is poop just poop? 3. Is it even possible to reduce the stench of crap? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/2 "2016-07-23T15:42:55Z")
The smell of poop has more to do with people’s diet than their sex. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/3 "2016-07-23T17:16:47Z")
Once poop is out, there’s no way to “reduce its stench” other than by disposing of the poop and letting the smell dissipate (air freshening sprays and the like, as [The Master has explained](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/173/do-air-fresheners-work-by-numbing-out-your-nose), merely mask smells with stronger fragrances and/or use nasal anaesthetics to temporarily disable your sense of smell). Certain foods such as onions and meat result in more pungent-smelling poop, but if you’ve got seriously [foul-smelling stools](http://www.healthline.com/symptom/foul-smelling-stool) you might want to consult a doctor, as it could be symptomatic of some medical issue. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/4 "2016-07-23T17:48:09Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Once poop is out, there’s no way to “reduce its stench” other than by disposing of the poop and letting the smell dissipate (air freshening sprays and the like, as [The Master has explained](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/173/do-air-fresheners-work-by-numbing-out-your-nose), merely mask smells with stronger fragrances and/or use nasal anaesthetics to temporarily disable your sense of smell). The linked article actually says this: [QUOTE=The Master] There are three basic ways of getting rid of undesirable odors: masking them with stronger scents, such as the ubiquitous lemon and pine fragrances; chemically dissolving or absorbing them, as with activated charcoal or silica gel; and numbing out your nose… [/QUOTE] [my underline] The products in the link below are effective at reducing the pervasive odor of poop. They contain a proprietary absorbent/deodorant powder. They are mandatory in some high-traffic backcountry hiking areas such as Mt Whitney where burying poop is unsustainable. Also used by NASA, apparently. ETA: actually developed by NASA, according the site. [http://www.cleanwaste.com/products](http://www.cleanwaste.com/products) ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e47774/32.png) [@quiltguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/5 "2016-07-24T16:46:23Z")
Don’t people who have colostomy bags take some sort of “deodorant” tablet(chlorophyll, charcoal, etc.) to cut down on the smell from the occasional leak of gas, or solids, from an ill-fitting bag? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/6 "2016-07-24T17:10:41Z")
> [@quiltguy](#): > > Don’t people who have colostomy bags take some sort of “deodorant” tablet(chlorophyll, charcoal, etc.) to cut down on the smell from the occasional leak of gas, or solids, from an ill-fitting bag? Such products are sold. But there’s no real good evidence that any of them make any significant difference. Fecal gas (and hence odor) is dependent on diet and gut flora, for the most part. Also, medical conditions such as the absence of sufficient endogenous digestive enzymes (like lipase) may contribute for some people. Fat that is not absorbed into the system gets turned into some volatile molecules by the gut flora, and those volatiles do reek. Shit gonna stink, yet some folks will always feel that theirs doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/7 "2016-07-24T18:36:30Z")
I would think shit is supposed to smell bad … and unappetizing … it’s an evolutionary thing. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/8 "2016-07-24T21:13:41Z")
Does it actually smell ‘bad’? Or are we just culturally trained to recognize that odor as something bad? I’ve held babies who were smiling & cooing, while their diaper was so dirty you could easily smell it. But it didn’t seem to bother them. Thinking about this, maybe all smells are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ based on our culture? There are some smells that can cause bad physical reactions in the body, but I only know of a few. For most smells, it seems like their classification as good or bad is based on culture, especially memories of personal exposure. ---
**Author:** ![teddybound](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e7dd6/32.png) [@teddybound](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teddybound)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/9 "2016-07-25T01:02:10Z")
Yeah. I’ve never seen a dog or cat actually show the concept of bad smell. ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/10 "2016-07-25T01:51:12Z")
I just want to pass on a tip about the aforesaid odiferous excreta. If it smells awful, dead body awful, so awful that you reel back from the bowl and gag; that can be a sign of pancreatic cancer. An MRI usually answers the question pretty quickly, because it could be something else. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/11 "2016-07-25T11:18:33Z")
> [@Marion\_Wormer](#): > > I just want to pass on a tip about the aforesaid odiferous excreta. If it smells awful, dead body awful, so awful that you reel back from the bowl and gag; that can be a sign of pancreatic cancer. An MRI usually answers the question pretty quickly, because it could be something else. Not to make light of this, but if what you say is true, then 90% of my co-workers must be so afflicted. Our rest rooms are uninhabitable. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/12 "2016-07-25T11:51:45Z")
I think we should have poop specialists. Poop has the capacity to tell us a lot more about what is going on with us than we currently use it for. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/13 "2016-07-25T12:10:35Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > I think we should have poop specialists. Poop has the capacity to tell us a lot more about what is going on with us than we currently use it for. 😕 What do you think gastro-enterologists do? ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/14 "2016-07-25T12:24:22Z")
There’s a nice. quick moment in _The Last Emperor_ where the poop of the pampered child is passed from acolyte to acolyte for a deep smell once over, clearly a med check, as part of his morning routine. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/15 "2016-07-25T12:35:18Z")
> [@cjackson](#): > > 1. Is it even possible to reduce the stench of crap? AIUI, [the Apollo astronauts had to basically glue a bag to their butts to poop into](http://www.space.com/22597-space-poop-astronaut-toilet-explained.html) – and then after the deed was done, they had to manually knead in some sort of antiseptic agent that terminated bacterial action, thus eliminating the production of gases that otherwise would have caused the bag to expand (and eventually burst). This implies that if you can eliminate (or reduce) bacterial activity, you may be able to reduce the emission of odorous gases. ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/16 "2016-07-25T20:59:44Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > Not to make light of this, but if what you say is true, then 90% of my co-workers must be so afflicted. Our rest rooms are uninhabitable. It’s not just bad like you’d find in a locker room, it’s bad like you’d find in an abandoned morgue where the bodies have been left out for a couple of weeks. It’s not a normal smell. It’s like your insides are rotting out. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/17 "2016-07-25T22:37:33Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Does it actually smell ‘bad’? Or are we just culturally trained to recognize that odor as something bad? > … There actually was government sponsored research to find out what smell would be universally seen as horrible across all cultures. The purpose was to create a non-harmful but effective “stink bomb” to be used for crowd dispersal and so on. Surprisingly, many odors, such as vomit, were not universally objectionable. However, their winner was [Government Standard Bathroom Malodour](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/feb/24/globalisation.ukcrime): > [@](#): > > She found that two smells transcended cultural barriers: one is called US Government Standard Bathroom Malodour, a horrendously concentrated stink of human faeces. > > Dalton said: ‘It’s very pungent… more precisely, it smells like shit, but much, much stronger. It fills your head. It gets to you in ways that are unimaginable. It’s not something you are likely to come across in the real world.’ ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/18 "2016-07-25T23:00:23Z")
SerenDip: **HOW HITLER’S FLATULENCE MAY HAVE HELPED END WWII EARLIER THAN IT OTHERWISE WOULD HAVE** > **[How Hitler's Flatulence May Have Helped End WWII Earlier Than it Otherwise...](http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2016/07/hitlers-flatulance/)** > > The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader What was it that caused Adolf Hitler’s physical and mental health to collapse in the closing days of World War II? He was losing the war, of course— surely that had a great deal to do with... all caps original. Quite a detailed article, considering. Gastroenterology history and WWII history in one. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/19 "2016-07-25T23:02:08Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Does it actually smell ‘bad’? Or are we just culturally trained to recognize that odor as something bad? > > I’ve held babies who were smiling & cooing, while their diaper was so dirty you could easily smell it. But it didn’t seem to bother them. > Thinking about this, maybe all smells are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ based on our culture? There are some smells that can cause bad physical reactions in the body, but I only know of a few. For most smells, it seems like their classification as good or bad is based on culture, especially memories of personal exposure. It’s not plausible that all smell preferences are cultural artefacts. There is direct selection pressure - about as strong as any selecction pressure can be - against anyone who finds the smell of poisonous or contaminated substances attractive. Poop, rotten meat, etc. And it’s not inconsistent with this that we should find our own poop _somewhat_ less repulsive, albeit not so repulsive as other people’s poop. Our own poop contains no bacteria that were not already in our body, so the risk is not so extreme; still, the contents of our own poop do not belong in our _upper_ digestive tract. And, before you ask: no, I have no idea why dogs eat poop. It’s a glitch in the matrix. ---
**Author:** ![allpfpc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9d8465/32.png) [@allpfpc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/allpfpc)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683/20 "2016-07-25T23:03:34Z")
One of my friend smells bad, I am afraid to tell him that. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-questions-about-the-smell-of-human-poop/760683.md?page=2)