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New Yorkers Make Headlines For Stinky Food Habits

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New Yorkers who consume stinky food in the subway and other confined spaces apparently have become such a problem that they've been making headlines this weekend.

As 1010 WINS' Glenn Schuck reported, the New York Daily News reported Sunday on an apparent epidemic of people eating pungent and aromatic items in places they should not. Schuck also found some people who were fed up with what others fed on.

New Yorkers Make Headlines For Stinky Food Habits

One man named Ben told Schuck his recent bus ride was a stink fest.

"I sat behind someone on a bus who was eating this awful barbecued chicken, and stunk up the whole bus," he said.

A woman said many days on the subway, she has to move away from the stinky food someone is eating and go to another car.

"It's that bad. A scale from one to 10, it's 10," she said. "It smells that bad. It's very, very disgusting."

The newspaper quoted Etiquette School of New York founder Patricia Fitzpatrick on the subject. She said food should not be smelled in public.

Fitzpatrick told the newspaper that people who eat cold cut sandwiches, green salads, nuts, carrots and yogurt at their desks will have no problem. But someone who zaps a fish fillet in the office microwave will run into trouble, one person who did just that told the newspaper.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has no rules against eating and drinking on trains, but a spokeswoman advised people to stick to foods that don't spill, the newspaper reported.

Transit authorities in other cities do, in fact, go so far as to ban eating. While the Chicago Transit Authority does not list eating and drinking on 'L' trains and buses under officially "prohibited activities," the agency does ask people not to do it.

And in Singapore, there is no saying please. Those who eat on trains there are subject to a $500 fine, the newspaper reported.

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