Residents across the U.S. have reported a mysterious fog with a chemical smell that causes various symptoms, leading to concerns about its safety. The fog, dubbed “Fun Natural,” emerged in late December across multiple states, including Texas, Wisconsin, and Florida. Many have shared videos depicting symptoms such as coughs, sore throats, swelling eyes, and fatigue after brief exposure. One Florida woman described feeling ill after spending ten minutes near the fog, while another individual cited similar experiences on TikTok. Experts advise that there is no evidence linking the fog to health issues, attributing symptoms to natural weather phenomena and seasonal viruses.
People across the United States have reported a mysterious fog with a “chemical odor” that may make them sick within minutes of exposure.
Reports of “Fun Natural” fog began in late December in parts of Texas, Wisconsin, Iowa, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Florida, and Minnesota.
Local residents have been posting numerous videos on social media since the fog began, describing “symptoms” such as coughs, sore throats, bloodshot eyes, irritated eyes, fatigue, loss of appetite, and digestive problems. There is.
A woman from Florida told DailyMail.com that she stopped at a gas station for about 10 minutes and felt sick.
“Within about an hour, I kept sneezing over and over again for about three hours and my eyes were really swollen,” she said.
“I felt very warm and felt like I had a fever, and my stomach hurt.”
One TikTok user, who goes by the name “Lasky,” said he was also experiencing symptoms such as “sore throat, cough, fatigue, tiredness — I’m still recovering.”
He said in the video that all of his symptoms were a direct result of the fog.
But experts say that, despite reports, there is no evidence to suggest that this “sick-causing” haze is anything other than a natural weather phenomenon and the co-occurrence of a virus that is especially common at this time of year. states.
“Sore throat, cough, fatigue, tiredness – I’m still recovering,” said one TikTok user from the Pacific Northwest.
Holly Meyer Lucas, who lives in Florida, also shared a video on TikTok, writing, “For the past two weeks I’ve been sick and my eyes have been hurting a lot.
“We’ve had fog in Florida, which is totally not normal,” she said.
The report said the fog is unusual not only because of its smell, but also because it looks like “white particles” swirling in the air.
Thoughts about this particle have led some Americans to check their air filters. A North Dakota resident recently checked and made a shocking discovery.
He claimed the air filter had been recently replaced prior to the investigation.
“So dirty, so fast,” he explained of the filter in the video. He showed it next to a new filter to demonstrate how much residue had built up.
The text in the video says, “Beware of fog.”
David Bamber, from St. Petersburg, Florida, shared a TikTok video of himself walking through thick fog. Regular fog usually dissipates later in the day, but recent fog lingers into the night.
“The strangest thing is the taste and smell,” Bamber said. “It smells like after a lot of fireworks have been set off, and the air tastes toxic. It’s really weird.”
Another TikTok user in North Dakota posted a video showing his home’s air filter filled with residue, which he claims was recently replaced.
Holly Meyer Lucas, a Florida native, posted on TikTok that she has been feeling unwell and suffering from “sore” eyes since the fog rolled over the state.
Although the “white particle” appearance of fog may seem unusual, fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the ground.
When you shine a light through the fog, these particles become visible.
As for the “chemical” smells people talk about, fog absorbs and traps polluted air near the ground, and serves to carry car exhaust, industrial emissions, and other airborne chemicals.
“When fog forms, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and other pollutant gases are captured or ‘scavenged’ by the fog’s water droplets,” Rudolf Husar, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington, told NASA Earth Observatory. explained in the article.
Additionally, in humid air, water droplets trap odor-causing molecules and remain lingering and concentrated for longer periods of time, making odors more powerful.
Additionally, it is not uncommon for fog to persist during this time of year.
The “chemical” odor associated with this recent fog likely comes not from the fog itself, but from pollutants that were already present in the air when the fog occurred.
Natural fog can also explain symptoms like respiratory illnesses that people are reporting.
The Florida resident told DailyMail.com that he stopped at a gas station (pictured) for about 10 minutes and felt sick. Then she developed a cough and a fever.
Conspiracy theories are rife, with some suggesting the fog could be a type of chemical weapon or connected to the drones that mysteriously plagued the United States in December.
Studies have shown that fog can cause respiratory problems such as coughing, shortness of breath, chest pain, nasal congestion, and wheezing, especially in asthma patients.
That’s because our lungs are designed to breathe in oxygen, not water. Increased moisture content in the air can irritate the respiratory system and cause unpleasant symptoms.
Fog can be especially irritating when mixed with airborne pollutants, allergens, or other particles.
However, the report has sparked a wave of conspiracy theories that are currently sweeping social media.
The scare first started in the last week of this year and exploded on social media on December 29th with a surge of posts about the fog.
Fog usually looks like a soupy gray mist, but when you shine direct light on it, the light scatters off the individual water droplets that make up the fog.
Many of these posts speculate that the fog may be a chemical or biological weapon involved in a terrorist plot, or that it may be an experiment conducted by our government.
Supporters of the latter theory compare the fog to Operation Seaspray, the U.S. Navy’s secret biological warfare experiment that sprayed large amounts of bacteria into the air two miles off the coast of San Francisco, California.
As for the “chemical” smells people are describing, the fog can absorb and trap polluted air near the surface, making that smell more powerful.
Multiple studies have shown that fog can cause respiratory problems such as coughing, shortness of breath, chest pain, nasal congestion, and wheezing. The photo is a still image taken from a camera in Texas and shows particles in the fog.
The purpose of this experiment, conducted in 1950, was to determine how vulnerable large American cities like San Francisco were to biological warfare attacks by terrorists.
The Navy thought the bacteria it was distributing was completely harmless to humans, but officials soon realized that wasn’t the case when 11 Bay Area residents rushed to the hospital with severe urinary tract infections. .
One affected person, who was recovering from prostate surgery, died.
Some have suggested the fog may be related to the unexplained drones that have plagued the Northeast in recent months.
“Wasn’t there a drone spraying something?” I feel like I remember that video somewhere…but I don’t know the validity,” one X user asked.