Abstract
In studying indoor atmospheric pollution, the concentration of air pollutants is considered to be the primary factor in judging indoor pollution level, while sensory effects accessed by olfactory analysis has not been paid enough attention. In this paper, twenty living rooms in Beijing including newly decorated, 3 months and 6 months after decoration were sampled once a day for 10 d, and qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis and olfactory analysis of volatile organic compounds were carried out. The results showed the concentrations of the 6 main compounds surpassed the limitation values released by World Health Organization; the pollutants with highest chemical concentrations were not the most odor active odorants. Olfactory analysis which measured the odor characters such as odor detection threshold (ODT), odor active value (OAV) and odor quality was a helpful tool to identify possible chemicals which cause indoor smelling issues, and it was necessary to access indoor air quality in combination with their chemical concentrations to give a comprehensive judgment on indoor air quality.
Highlights
In recent years, pollution caused by indoor decoration has become more and more serious
Lots of studies have been performed and great public concerns have been drawn to the indoor air contamination, and the results showed that volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are the main and ubiquitous pollutants [3]
Two factors including odor active value (OAV) and odor quality are usually used in odor evaluation
Summary
Pollution caused by indoor decoration has become more and more serious. In studying indoor VOCs, with respect of connection between pollutants and human health, the toxicities of pollutants were the principal issue [4], the chemical concentration was considered to be the primary factor in judging the intensity of indoor odor pollution [5]. Some VOCs that commonly detected indoor are associated with odor [8], among which some pollutants with concentrations even lower than the limitation can strongly impact the overall sensory impression. OAV, which is defined as the concentration of chemical pollutant divided by its odor detection threshold (ODT) [10], is calculated to identify possible pollutants causing malodors or to express the odor activity of one odorous compound [11]. Characterization of odors (qualitative and quantitative) can help to identify pollution sources and play an important role in evaluating indoor air quality due to great human sensitivity to odor [13]
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