https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/things-i-won-t-wor...
How is the smell able to travel so quickly? And through walls no less?
However, there's a running theory that he has kinda burnt out his nose working with certain compounds, as he seems mostly unphased by smelly chemicals that other people very much struggle working with.
15 mph really isn't much for wind, though? In fact that's about how much wind there is where I am right now, so that doesn't strike me as an unreasonable condition.
It sounds like this substance is bad enough that a couple of molecules per Litre would make the air smell awful, which together with the previous point may explain how the bad smell could be detected at such a distance so quickly.
> [Chlorine trifluoride] is, of course, extremely toxic, but that’s the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water –with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals — steel, copper, aluminum, etc. — because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminum keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes.