South Carolina

As a boy, I once owned a whoopee cushion. I thought it was hilarious; my aging and extremely “proper” great aunt—God rest her soul—did not, and at one Thanksgiving dinner, she let me know. Chastened, I never used a whoopee cushion again. Nor, as the decades passed, did I think much more about the possible humor value of fake farts.

Until this week, when I came across the strange case of Alexander Paul Robertson Lewis, who has been charged with a felony in South Carolina for—and let me quote from the official police press release here—using “an Internet-acquired spray designed to imitate fecal odor.”

The nanny state run amok? The criminalization of fun? Authorities who Just Can’t Take A Joke?

Not exactly.

The gas leak that wasn’t

The 32-year-old Lewis worked as a teacher’s assistant at the West Florence High School in Florence County, South Carolina. His duties did not, of course, include spraying anything “designed to imitate fecal odor” into the air. But according to police, Lewis was responsible for “creating a foul smell” at the school—not once, but for weeks. It was so dire that multiple students needed medical attention.

The school’s administration suspected a gas leak at first. According to local news reports, in mid-August, the school sent an email to parents letting them know that “gas is only used in our school for heating, in the kitchen for food preparation, and in a few of the science labs. Excluding the kitchen, we have turned off all gas to the building as a precaution. This has allowed us to rule out a gas leak as the source of the odor.”

The district brought in plumbers to inspect “all lines above the ceilings as well as the propane tank lines for potential gas leaks.” It brought in the local gas utility to test for leaks in “hallways, classrooms, rooftops, science labs, propane tanks, natural gas meters, and floor drains in bathrooms.” It hired an environmental consultant to do air quality testing. None of these inspections turned up anything untoward.

Over the next weeks, parents and students began to complain vociferously about getting sick at school. One student told local station WPDE that “every time I go to my second block class, I walk up the stairwell and immediately, teachers are covering their noses and their mouths, coughing because of the smell.” Another said, “I got physically sick the other day because of the smell. I feel like I’m going to pass out because I get so lightheaded and so dizzy.”

Parents said that they were taking their children for doctors’ visits, worried about possible carbon monoxide exposure or about asthma-related difficulties. One parent wrote in a Facebook comment about the whole saga, “My daughter passed out and [was] rushed to the ER.”

An angry mom showed up to a September school board meeting and ripped into the district for its lack of responsiveness. “There has been an ongoing smell for the past two, three weeks now,” she said. “My son has asthma. This is triggering his asthma… I had to take him to the doctor twice… He’s had to use his inhaler multiple times a day.”

The school continued to search for answers. According to WMBF News, the district ultimately had “five different entities test for gas, opening several walls, and checking sewer lines.”

In the end, though, it may come down to some guy wielding a truly noxious amount of “fart spray.”

On September 20, police arrested Lewis for using the spray “on multiple occasions and over time resulting in a disruption of the school,” which spent $55,000 trying to track down the problem.

Such events are uncommon but not unknown. In 2023, for instance, two people in San Antonio, Texas, were arrested and charged with felonies after a similar “senior prank.” In that case, according to local accounts, “The stench was so bad that the school was evacuated twice in an attempt to find the source, while seven students were taken to the hospital for further care after complaining of headaches and nausea.”

Crazy. But why the severe reactions?

Safe stink?

One can go on Amazon and find many of these products, and they often advertise themselves as being “non-toxic.” A product called “Wet Farts” claims, for instance, that “Our fart spray extra strong prank is made with non-toxic and non-flammable ingredients that are totally safe and effective.” (Though it does note that Wet Farts will “bombard your victims with a stinky wet cloud of fart that will make their face grimace and their eyes water.”)

But even “non-toxic” products can cause reactions, especially in susceptible populations like asthma sufferers. Many of these fart products don’t publish their ingredient lists, although some have put out Safety Data Sheets (SDS). Before we look at those, though, let’s back up and consider something a bit more basic to see how it compares.

Simple “stink bombs” often rely on ammonium sulfide, which, when exposed to air, generates hydrogen sulfide. This smells strongly of rotten eggs. The National Institutes of Health describes ammonium sulfide as a “colorless to yellow liquid, with an odor of rotten eggs or ammonia,” which can “slowly react with water to generate flammable and toxic hydrogen sulfide gas.” The compound “may be irritating to skin, eyes, and mucous membranes and may cause illness from skin absorption.”

Stink bombs may also use mercaptans such as methyl mercaptan, which is added to odorless natural gas to make it smell. (It is also present in bad breath.)

But this kind of thing is amateur hour. Sulfides and mercaptans alone aren’t enough to capture the ripe aroma of fully baked flatulence. So truly noxious fart sprays often contain secret ingredient blends that are difficult to evaluate. “Liquid Ass” has a published SDS that notes the product is a yellowish “turbid liquid” that is 90-plus percent water; the rest is a “mixture of proprietary natural ingredients.”

Exposure to Liquid Ass, especially in large quantities, can cause “irritation” to the skin and eyes, while eye splashes “may cause temporary pain and blurred vision.” Ingesting the stuff can “cause headaches, gastritis, [and] intoxication,” while breathing it “may cause irritation to the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract.” Still, exposure should “cause irritation with only minor residual injury.”

The makers of Liquid Ass claim that the hydrogen sulfide released by garden-variety stink bombs can, even at moderate levels, cause real problems for people. By contrast, they say that Liquid Ass “has been tested to be safe” and that its SDS notes: “No hazardous ingredients known to be present.”

Or the discerning prankster might consider the Jue-Fish Toxic Bomb Super Fart! gift set. It’s perfect to use when “meeting with friends” or even “dealing with villains.”

While it “smells like the worst smell in the world,” the ingredients are “very safe.” These include:

• water
• capsaicin [responsible for the “heat” in hot peppers; also used in pepper spray/tear gas]
• piperine [gives black and white pepper their pungency]
• mustard extract
• fermented soybeans [natto, a Japanese food made from fermented soybean, is described as being “notorious for its strong, distinctive smell, often compared to dirty socks or ammonia”]
• fermented Houttuynia cordata [a plant known as “fish mint” or “fish leaf,” with “an unusual taste from its volatile oil decanoyl acetaldehyde (3-oxododecanal), a taste that is often described as “fishy”]

The point is that the ingredients in “fart sprays” can vary widely, may not be fully disclosed, and may never have been tested for toxicity in the combination present in the bottle. Even when “non-toxic,” they may cause problems for some people.

(One of the best parts of working at Ars Technica is seeing experts emerge from the woodwork to enlighten us about all sorts of fascinating topics in the comments; I trust that the chemists here can shed even more light on the “science of stink”—and on why it might cause strong reactions.)

Still—it’s pretty amazing that one teacher’s assistant was allegedly able to create such a serious situation for an entire high school. Just how much of this stuff could one person spray?

We may learn more over the coming months when Lewis has to return to court. He is currently free on a $9,090 bond.