While people try to avoid the stinky smell of smog, environmental monitors are actually collecting and sniffing these gases to help overseers and watchdogs catch polluters around China. 

Meet this girl with an incredible sense of smell. Chen Yuanyuan has the ability to recognize odors through sniffing bags with different smell. Normally, smelling something awful would make people's wrinkle their faces, but not with the 33-year-old Chen whose job as an environmental monitor requires this exceptional skill.

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"It's easy to describe the job... The researchers smells the gas inside the bag, and tells you whether it's stinky or not," she said.

She has been serving at the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center for a decade now. Her talent that requires accuracy and precision has helped overseers and authorities track polluters. 

Scientists use a specialized collecting container and gather gases emitted by establishments, garbage depot, sewage treatment plants and others. Then, these gases are inhaled by six experts altogether. After which, they smell three bags where one of those gases are being tested while the other two contain clean air.

"We dilute the gases at first to make them harmless, but they're always so stinky that they make us nauseous," Chen said.

Sniffers need to test the samples as soon as possible as these gases can only be stored up to 24 hours.

The team of sniffers say this job takes dedication. For instance, in 2006, a complaint that a pharmaceutical company was illegally emitting obnoxious gases. Chen and her co-workers had to standby until 1 in the morning to gather samples. Then, they headed to the lab and conducted the sniffing tests three hours later. 

But to protect their precious sense of smell, each sniffers avoids sniffing for more than three hours. 

Wondering how to be part of the sniff patrol? Chen said that you need to pass a national field test. People between ages 18 and 45 years can take the exam by identifying basic scents like flowers.

With the recent  'red alert' status posted because of air pollution. Chen says that "What we do is important to environmental monitoring, and we're proud of that."

Tagssniff patrol, environmental hazards, hazardous gasses, Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center, Senses, smell, nose, olfactory