Does latex have a smell?

Yes, latex has a smell, but it depends on whether you mean natural latex rubber or latex paint, and smell level varies. Natural latex rubber, which comes from rubber tree sap, has a distinct milky, slightly sweet, rubbery smell, especially when new, such as natural latex mattress, gloves, or balloons have noticeable rubber smell that fades over weeks as it off-gases. Synthetic latex or latex blend may have more chemical smell. Latex paint, which is water based acrylic paint, has a smell but much less strong than oil based paint, it has mild ammonia or acrylic smell when wet, which is noticeable during painting but dissipates within few hours to a day as paint dries, and low VOC latex paints have very little smell. Some people sensitive to latex may notice smell more. For example, fresh latex paint smell is mild and not as harsh as oil paint, which has strong solvent smell lasting days. So latex does have smell, natural rubber latex has rubbery smell, latex paint has mild paint smell, but it is much less than oil based alternatives and fades quickly with ventilation, opening windows helps reduce smell faster.