Chapter 19 — The City Has No Smell

The session on the right to complain took place in the old theater hall, where the stage was so low that the last person sitting could still see the speaker's shoes. The city doesn't call it a hearing. On paper, it is “adjustment consultation for odor neutralization program”. Nghi read the name, saying the word consultation is often used to make an argument sound smaller.

Huyen brought six boxes of documents. The first box is minute station data. The second box is the maintenance log. The third box is an anonymous breathing and symptom map. The fourth box is Tu's scent warehouse. The fifth box is a reflection of the market. The sixth box is records that are not yet conclusive.

“The last box is the most important,” Tu said before entering the hall.

"Why?" Huyen asked.

“Because if they only look at the other five boxes, they will think they know enough.”

Quynh sat at the host table, not in the center but to the side to give up the screen. Tung and Van are on two sides. Representatives of workers sit in the same row as residents, without partitions. An participated directly, in front of him was a multi-layered map.

Quynh started with a sentence without data: "Clean Class has helped some areas, caused blind spots in some conditions and was presented too briefly. Today we decide how to fix it, not rewrite the past."

A city representative asked why the system wasn't called a conditional success. Nghi replied from the seat below: "It doesn't matter what you call it if the condition board is right next to the word success."

Huyen presented the method section. She projected a map without synthetic colors. Each layer has a toggle button. When the sensor layer is turned on, the station area appears. When the detected odor layer is turned on, the spots are spread unevenly. When turning on the symptom layer, there is a cluster in the South Ben area and a band following the truck route. When turning on the spray schedule, some points overlap, some do not.

“No class alone is enough to draw conclusions,” Huyen said. “But stacking helps us know where more measurements are needed and where guidance is needed right away.”

One expert asked: “If subjective data is not representative of the entire population, why put it on the map?”

Huyen replied: "The machine data also does not represent every height, every window, every body. The problem is not to choose one type as the absolute representative. The problem is to publicize the range of each type."

Van presented the health diary. She also read the number of people without symptoms. Some people in the hall were disappointed that the table did not create clear cause-and-effect relationships. Van said that was a condition to avoid turning the patient into evidence.

"I can't say the Clean Layer causes every asthma attack. I can say there are periods of increased symptoms, system changes, and low air layer fluctuations. Those three things need to be monitored together."

A worker stood up. He said during the night shift, when the smell decreased, many people took off their masks because they thought they no longer needed them. He did not want the factory to be closed, because it was his livelihood. He wanted the process to not rely on workers guessing smells.

Ly continued, saying the new training program has helped workers know how to check heat, pressure and teammates. But training time must be included in the shift, not placed on the employee's shoulders.

Quynh asked the factory representative if he agreed. That person said it needed budget and time. Tung replied: “The cost of training is lower than the cost when a person does not know what he or she is inhaling.”

Nghi presented the market smell table. Grandma Do not request deletion of hygiene regulations. She asked to separate three things: food safety, community discomfort and environmental signals.

"A jar of fish sauce can make this person uncomfortable and still be safe. An area with no odor may still need inspection. If you use one word to solve three things, the seller and the buyer both lose."

An went on stage. He did not give a long speech. He showed his map, in which the red zone was not the place of absolute danger but where his body usually reacted. He said he didn't want the city to believe him more than the machine. He wanted computers and adults to stop deleting him just because he couldn't provide a name.

“What do you need the city for?” the chairman asked.

"Give me the right to report my symptoms without being asked what I smelled. And the notification must have a picture for people who are having trouble breathing and can't read long sentences."

No one objected. Some people take notes very quickly.

Tu was invited to speak via video recording because he did not want to stand in front of a large crowd. The image of the smell warehouse appears on the screen. He talked about people losing their sense of smell, about empty air bottles, about how not having smell is not a common state for all bodies.

"If the city puts me on the council just to prove it's inclusive, I'll withdraw. If it puts me on to ask how to design notifications for people who can't smell, I'll participate."

Quynh asked what rights he wanted in the regulations.

“The right to see the raw data in an accessible form. The right to comment on the logo. The right to say no when the narrative is used out of context.”

When it came to Huyen, a delegate asked her if she admitted that she had contributed to missing data.

"Have."

“So why should the city believe the process you proposed?”

"Don't believe it just because I suggest it. Design the process so that someone else can check, so that mistakes are recorded, and so that people have the right to see what was eliminated and the reason for the exclusion."

“You want all drafts to be public?”

“No. I want the final decision to record what data was not used and why. Not every single thought is a record. But every exclusion that affects safety must have a reason.”

One expert asked if releasing too much unverified data would create fake news. Huyen said data labels and reading instructions must accompany the record. Deletion is not the only way to prevent misunderstandings.

Quynh presented the final proposal:

- Separate the unpleasant odor index from the environmental safety index.

- Publicize actual spray schedules, sensor status, weather conditions and data loss intervals.

- Do not allow Clean Class to automatically increase the dose in school areas, markets and residential areas without checking for low distribution.

- Install sensors every minute and at many heights; Maintain a paid manual observation team.

- Establish a Community Sensory Council consisting of residents, workers, food vendors, doctors, people with loss of smell and technical experts.

- Recognize odor and symptom logs as civil data to request an investigation, but do not use them alone to conclude toxicology.

- It is forbidden to use the phrase "no odor" as a safety certification.

The city did not immediately agree to everything. Some things need to be changed by law, some need budget, some are opposed because of fear of responsibility. But no one is suggesting going back to the big zero on the screen anymore.

When voting provisionally, the result was that six items were approved, two items were moved to pilot, and one item required further comments. Huyen did not feel happy about winning call. She saw a web of responsibility that had just been laid down, and that web could entangle many people.

After the meeting, Tung asked her if she felt the city understood.

“Not enough.”

“You didn't say enough.”

“But this time there are regulations to continue.”

Nghi heard it and said: "A part is also a lid. As long as it's not covered tightly."

An folded the map. He asked if he could keep the red color in the symptom area.

Huyen said: "Yes. But stating your color red means your body has reacted, not that the city has convicted a source."

“Then I'll keep it.”

That night, the riverside board changed its content. No more "no more bad smells". New lines appear slower and longer:

"Reed River is testing how to recognize the environment using many sources. When you don't smell anything but have symptoms, report it."

The city does not yet have the right to smell in the law. But people have just won the right not to be considered unreasonable when saying their bodies already know something in front of a screen.

After the session, the secretariat released a ten-page explanation and a graphic summary. An checked the image, pointing out that the "follow" icon resembled the "secure" icon in a small size. They changed the picture, tried again with an older person and a worker who couldn't read well. The new version is less beautiful, but not misunderstood.

Nghi requested that the complaint rights sign be placed right next to the spray schedule board. The seller does not have to go through three rooms to report strange smells. Tung set up a separate number for technical problems. Van set up a separate number for the symptoms. Huyen created a common form so that people do not have to call the cause by the correct name.

A week later, a resident reported a sweet smell in an area where there was no station. The system has no data. The group did not say the person imagined it. They sent someone to come, take samples and detect the smell of new paint from the construction site. Not dangerous, but not nothing either. The reporter is sent the results, including any uncertainties.

Quynh said that was the first test of the right to complain. Not every reflection becomes an incident, but every reflection must have a place to receive and an answer.

Save the minutes, then stack them next to the original blank sheet of paper. She realized both contained no odor. One that starts the question, one that proves the question went through the system without turning into noise.