The future European standard to determine odour in ambient air by using field inspection

peer reviewedThis paper presents the methodologies to determine odour in ambient air by field inspection that will be a new European standard. The objective is to characterize the odour in a defined area. Without making a link with potential annoyance due to the presence of odours, the described methods propose the way to characterize an exposed environment. Two approaches are defined in the new standard: the grid method and the plume method. The grid method can be used determine the exposure to ambient odours in a defined area of study, using direct observation of recognizable odours in the field by human panel members. This method must be applied over a sufficiently long period of time (6 or 12 months) to be representative for the meteorological conditions of that location. The result is the distribution of the frequency of exposure to odours within the assessment area. The plume method can be used to determine the extent of detectable and recognizable odours from a specific source using direct observation in the field by human panel members under specific meteorological conditions