Downtown B.O. Levels Expected to Spike on Friday

Officials are cautioning that the level of body odor in the air downtown will spike at a record or near record level this Friday.
Dr. Meghan Ansell, a biologist at Gannon University, has been providing body odor air quality levels for various zones in Erie for the past five years. “We measure body odor in the air using Olfactory Pungency Units (OPU) on a scale of 1-100, with 1 being a group of freshly showered people on the coldest day of winter, and 100 being Woodstock on day three,” explained Ansell.
Ansell is concerned that Friday’s forecasted high of 90 degrees, combined with thousands of sweaty people wearing leather jackets, could push the OPU into record territory.
“Normal OPU in the air downtown is about 25, but I’m forecasting it to get into the mid 80’s by sunset on Friday.”
The previous record high OPU was 84 at the Rib Fest in 2016. According to Ansell, that was caused by a combination of high temperatures, lack of adequate bathroom facilities, and meat sweats.