The annoyance often caused to the population by odour depends on the individual response of people to it. Thus, the objective measure of odour is necessary to evaluate the health of an environment. The chemical analysis itself doesn’t allow to measure odour: it’s then essential to use sensorial methods.
The dynamic olfactometry technique is a sensorial method of analysis: a panel of selected people (examiners) establishes the detection threshold and the hedonic tone of the sampled air. The number of dilutions necessary for the panel to detect odour is the odour concentration and is expressed as:
European Odour Units per Cubic Metre (ouE/m3).
In addition to odour measurement, the staff of researches working at LOD has developed further competences thanks also to the collaboration with the University of Udine. These competences are:
- “Odour protocol”;
- Numerical dispersion models;
- Monitoring with electronic noses.
