The drop in traffic fumes in our cities’ air is making us more sensitive to a source of air pollution too often ignored: emissions from agriculture. But this countryside smell is not as rustic as some may think.

As governments all over Europe take measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and road traffic slows down, people living in cities are experiencing fresher air. Yet the absence of diesel fumes is also exposing many urban dwellers to emissions they are not used to smelling: the one coming from the fields.

It happened last weekend in Brussels, where many residents reported a strong smell of manure. “You’d think you were on a farm,” a citizen told the Belgian media outlet RTL Info. And while this made some feel nostalgic about a more romantic life in the countryside, other residents complained of its side effects: “When I opened my window, my eyes were stinging,” said one resident of Molenbeek, a municipality in the North-West of Brussels. “I also had a terrible headache.”

Fields of pollution

Manure management and storage is a significant source of ammonia, a highly polluting gas which threatens our ecosystems and causes irritation when inhaled. When the wind carries it over cities, ammonia reacts with emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from diesel vehicles and sulphur (SO₂) from power plants, to produce minuscule solid particles – less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter – known as PM2.5.

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