I'm sure this is going to sound really weird to anyone that uses scented detergent or dryer sheets in their laundry (or maybe air fresheners), but I have been noticing this for years and I find it really unsettling.

Over the past 6 years or so I have been getting computers from an acquaintance of mine that does e-waste for a fairly large organization. Rather than chuck all the computers, he'll give me a whole bunch of them to reuse or pull parts out of (I got 25 of them earlier this year... yikes). They mostly come out of different offices in different buildings scattered across a huge area... multiple counties in a north eastern US state.

What I have noticed is that about 80% of these systems have the same noxious fake flowery scent to them and the dust in them is, no joke, STICKY. If I blow them out (outdoors!!), the whole area smells like this flowery smell and a lot of times the dust needs to be scrubbed or wiped off of fans and surfaces for it to actually come off (despite using one of these... which actually works as a small leaf blower).

If I get a system that does NOT smell like this (and is not really disgusting from grease\moisture), any dust in the system usually blows right out cleanly and doesn't stick to anything at all. Some of these systems are 10-15 years old, others are a lot newer. Generally the older ones are dustier and will have a stronger flowery smell to them from more years of use, but even the 12 year old Optiplex systems that do not smell like this come clean much more easily than a 4-5 year old system that does. The stinky stuff is definitely sticky.

I thought at first (years ago) that it was maybe people using popular air fresheners or household cleaners... and I guess that is still possible... but as years went by and I was getting more and more of them I realized that it is just too pervasive and it is always exactly the same smell. I also buy a lot of old parts and systems online and I have gotten boxes, packing material, PCs or individual components that also have this same noxious flowery smell that fills the room.

My wife and I have used unscented laundry detergent for 14+ years and haven't used dryer sheets in at least 10, so I have no idea what brand this smell is.

Anyway... I don't know if people realize just how nose-blind we can get to smells like this, but if you use scented detergent or dryer sheets you may want to consider switching. Whatever this is cannot be healthy.

If this substance coats a piece of steel to the point that it needs to be scrubbed clean, the smell fills a room if the PC is turned on inside after cleaning and it smells so strongly that a PC that hasn't been used in years can noticeably give off a nauseating synthetic flower smell when the side panel is removed outdoors it cannot be good for our lungs.

Remember, these computers come from the workplaces of people who, presumably, are doing their laundry at home. How so much of this substance can get transferred to computers is just mind blowing... and I shudder to think about what is inside these poor peoples' lungs who are doing the laundry, wearing the clothes and sleeping on the pillow cases covered in this stuff. I don't know if there are microplastics involved or something else that is even worse, but it just does not seem good to be breathing this stuff in.

The only other things that give me this much trouble cleaning PCs are cigarette smoke, grease\oil and extreme filth from having too many pets.