Technical Bulletin No. 0050: On Sensory Evaluation of Odorous Air Pollutant Intensities (AQTB)

In June 1970 the writer participated in a conference at Stockholm, Sweden entitled "Methods for Measuring and Evaluating Odorous Air Pollutants at the Source and in the Ambient Air." Dr. Thomas Lindvall of the Department of Environmental Hygiene at the Karolinska Institutet was a co-participant in the conference and in discussion drew extensively on his recently completed dissertation on sensory evaluation of odorous air pollutant intensities. Since the dissertation made special reference to atmospheric emissions from Swedish kraft mills and constituted the most extensive investigation to date on this subject, arrangements were made to secure permission for its distribution to our membership as a technical bulletin. The dissertation summarizes work done by Dr. Lindvall to develop a method for sensory analysis of intensity of odorous emissions, and to evaluate the method for field use. Finally, it concerns itself with the suitability of this method for field experiments comparing perceived odor frequency data with source odor intensity data.