Yes. When carbon becomes " activated" it means it has been cooked at a very high temperature, the temperature is hot enough that it makes the surface of the carbon bubble up sort of like it was boiling. Because of this cooking process once the carbon cools there are millions of pores left behind on the surface of the carbon. This is where the odors are captured. When you smell something, you are inhaling small particles of whatever it is you are smelling atr the time ( kinda gross when you think of all the things you have smelled. So with the carbon filter, the air is sucked in, or blown through a tightly packed bed of activated carbon. The pores mentioned before capture these small particles of whatever odor you are trying to eliminate. Thus leaving the air that passes through almost devoid of any odors.