What are the main challenges encountered when measuring odours?
Measuring odours [using
traditional methods,
editor’s note] is very expensive and you can make a lot of mistakes. Because of cost issues, as an expert you probably will take only a few odour samples and therefore are not sure at all if your sample is representative of the industrial process. Just consider industrial production cycles that might vary during the year or even on a daily basis. In the whole process of sampling, sample storage and transport, lab analysis and dispersion modelling afterwards, you can easily have an uncertainty of several hundred percent if not done with diligence.
Do you think the current odour regulations enforced in your country of residence are appropriate to tackle odour pollution?
I live in Chile, although being German. Odour regulation is still as absent as anywhere else, but has improved during the last ten years. 2020 hast been the year for the first concrete proposal of an odour regulation regarding piggeries. It is challenging, but focuses only on measuring emissions. The problem is that in piggeries you have mainly passive sources that are complex to quantify, such as naturally ventilated stables or huge areas for land treatment of the slurry. Here, while measuring the odours, we will face the ‘uncertainty issue’ I mentioned before. Unfortunately, the proposed regulation does not care about the neighbours’ noses and does not consider measurements at the receptors to verify if the dispersion modelling leads to correct results.
How is citizen engagement valuable, or not, for odour experts?
The very first advice to any of our clients is to be a good and responsible neighbour. The worst thing you can do, as an industry, is not to take care of the people that surround you. Feedback of citizens is vital for any odour emitting industry if you want to improve. Involving citizens sometimes is not easy, especially if the odour expert has an purely engineering background, such as I do. Still, the purpose of what we do is to improve the quality of life of people, so, we need them to be engaged, otherwise we surely will fail.
Many thanks to Gerhard for his contribution!