ODOR IMPACT and olfactory annoyance

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Many of the main modern industrial activities cause odorous emissions into the surrounding environment, often causing situations of olfactory nuisance especially if they involve residential areas.

Hence the importance of evaluating, especially in the "ante operam" phase, the areas of the territory influenced by odor diffusion phenomena.

The analysis of situations olfactory nuisance is complicated by the fact that such situations have a component objective measurable in intensity, duration and frequency and a component subjective, linked to the offensiveness of the smell which is not uniquely quantifiable which is the cause of the real annoyance linked to the perception of the smell.

The study of odor diffusion must somehow take both of these aspects into account.

The analysis of diffusion in the atmosphere is done through the use of the usual diffusion models, through which, given the emission of a certain mass flow of substance, the spatial distribution in terms of concentration is calculated (e.g.: hourly average) of the substance itself.

By associating each substance with one minimum odor threshold (defined in terms of concentration such that 50% of those exposed perceive an odor) it is therefore possible to evaluate the spatial diffusion of the odor in terms of intensity.

There are several examples in the literature of tables containing odor thresholds for many of the chemical substances emitted by typical industrial activities.
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