B737 flight attendant reported fumes of 'burning chemical or iron' during preflight which persisted ...

Narrative:

I smelled something strange when I got in the plane initially. The smell is hard to describe but I thought it smelled like a sort of chemical burning smell. Or like iron. It kinda smelled like how blood tastes. A girl in the cleaning crew smelled it as well and thought it was strange. After the safety demo; the B and C fas (flight attendants) told us they smelled something in the aft galley. The a and I went back to check it out. We all got headaches. We smelled in the oven; lavs; and vents and determined the smell was not coming from them. The passengers did not seem bothered. Together; we determined it was safe to fly. Once in the air; the smell did not go away and headaches persisted. I experienced chest tightness and a few short breaths twice while I was in the trailing edge/aft on the cart. My symptoms cleared up about an hour before landing. I experienced chest tightness and a few short breaths twice while I was in the trailing edge/aft on the cart. Make sure this is not an air quality issue.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Flight Attendant reported fumes of 'burning chemical or iron' during preflight which persisted during flight. Entire Flight Attendant crew experienced temporary physiological symptoms.

Narrative: I smelled something strange when I got in the plane initially. The smell is hard to describe but I thought it smelled like a sort of chemical burning smell. Or like iron. It kinda smelled like how blood tastes. A girl in the cleaning crew smelled it as well and thought it was strange. After the safety demo; The B and C FAs (flight attendants) told us they smelled something in the aft galley. The A and I went back to check it out. We all got headaches. We smelled in the oven; lavs; and vents and determined the smell was not coming from them. The passengers did not seem bothered. Together; we determined it was safe to fly. Once in the air; the smell did not go away and headaches persisted. I experienced chest tightness and a few short breaths twice while I was in the trailing edge/aft on the cart. My symptoms cleared up about an hour before landing. I experienced chest tightness and a few short breaths twice while I was in the trailing edge/aft on the cart. Make sure this is not an air quality issue.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1692047
Time
Date	201910
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-800
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Flight Attendant In Charge
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor

B737 flight attendant reported fumes of 'burning chemical or iron' during preflight which persisted during flight. Entire flight attendant crew experienced temporary physiological symptoms.