Do you smell gasoline fumes or exhaust?

Hi.
I have a phobia of gasoline --particularly the smell.
I can't drive by a gas station without getting into a panic.
My question is -%26gt;
Will I get brain damage if I smell the air when
going past a gas station ...
or if I breathe in exhaust fumes when walking down the street ...
Or would I have to dip a towel in gas
and sniff it?
Answer:
No you will not get braindamage from smelling the air around a gas station. Exhaust fumes will not give you brain damage either unless you're sitting by an exhaust pipe inhaling the fumes all day.
If you are very sensitive to pollutants a lot of exhaust can give you a cough, but you're not going to get brain damage.
Yes, you would have to dip a towel in gas and sniff it to get and brain damage. You'd probably have to do it multiple times before you'd get braindamage.
Get over the fear, you're not in any danger.

---

smells in the air are not going to give you brain damage...dont pour gasoline into a rag and stick it to your face. thats just assinine.

---

It's been tested in labs, you'd have to inhale HUGE amounts of it to possible affect your health. Think about it, every body who pumps gas or visits a gas station (90% of the population) would be sick or mentally ill.

---

you wont get brain damage from smelling exhaust or gas fumes. lung damage definately, but not brain.

---

The main ingredient in gasoline are alkane hydrocarbons. These are clear, chemical solvents with a vague, musty odor. Gasoline itself smells like it does because of a number of other chemicals the oil company adds to petroleum to increase engine performance. What these chemicals are I don't know, and most of them are probably patented trade secrets anyhow.
One additive used to be tetra-ethyl lead. This was an "anti-knock" compound. Gasoline engines mix air and fuel, compress it and ignite it. The mixture has to be at a precise temperature and pressure for maximum fuel efficiency. Car engines are designed around the burn characteristics of pure octane. Lighter or heavier hydrocarbons burn too quickly or too slowly, causing the engine to misfire. This is what "knocking" is. The gasoline fraction of crude oil is low in octane though, and tetra-ethyl lead was added to make the fuel burn more like pure octane. However, lead is very toxic and was taken out of "unleaded gasoline".
Ordinarily when hydrocarbons burn, they form carbon dioxide and steam. Inside an engine however, the pressure and temperature are great enough for nitrogen and sulfur to also form compounds as well. The gasoline additives also burn, adding even more chemicals to the car exhaust. A poorly tuned engine is inefficient in burning fuel, and emits quite a lot of half burned fuel along with carbon monoxide. Monoxide is odorless, but is very toxic and is why people should not be in a closed garage with a running engine.
Deisel engines have very smelly exhaust because they use heavier fuel at higher temperatures and pressures. In fact they use heat and pressure to ignite their fuel, and this is why they have no spark plugs. The extreme temperature causes nitrogen in the air to combine with oxygen and fuel, producing hydrocarbon nitrates. These are toxic if inhaled on a regular basis and have been implicated in the health problems people who work around deisels experience.
Gasoline fumes are not toxic, but they are highly flammable of course. Lead can cause brain damage, but it has been taken out of gasoline. Carbon monoxide accumulating in a closed space, and the constant exposure to high levels of deisel exhaust are probably the only documented health risks

---

when i was a kid, we had leaded gasoline. the fumes were soooooo groovy. my dad had to scream at me to stay in the car when we fueled up. and i darn near be a jean-e-us.

---