Bath towels smell like they're burned

For the past week or so I've noticed that my bath towels have a burnt smell to them. They smelled like kerosene fumes.

I thought there was something wrong with my dryer, so I set up an appointment to have a guy from the gas company take a look at it.

I was pretty sure that the smell was coming from singed lint or something and realized it's past time to clean the dryer vent, but wanted to have it checked in case I was wrong.

The guy called to let me know he was on his way and asked what the problem was.

I told him about the odor in the towels and he asked if I noticed it from the washer and dryer. I told him it's just the dryer.

He asked if it's a gas dryer and I told him yes. Then out of the clear blue, he asked me if I had been painting, varnishing or using caulk/adhesive. That question caught me off guard. How did he know I'd been painting?

I said something like, "holy cow, how did you know that?"

Then he explained how, even though I can't smell the paint fumes anymore, they're still in the air in the house and every time the flame on a gas appliance lights, it mixes with the paint fumes, which causes a kerosene smell. He didn't say it in those exact words, but pretty close.

When he got here, he turned the dryer on for a little bit and had me smell the inside of the drum. Then he lit the burner on the stove and both appliances gave off that odor.

He said it's called aldehyde.

I'm opening windows as much as I can now, but it's too cold out to leave them open very long.

Anyway, I just thought it was interesting as I'd never heard of such a thing and thought someone else might learn from it - probably not you pro's, but maybe someone who doesn't deal with this kind of thing every day.

Barb