International experience of air pollution assessment in areas where enterprises with odorous emissions are located (literature review)

Abstract

The article provides a review of literature data on approaches to the ambient air pollution assessment in the areas where enterprises - sources of odour are located. According to the analysis, international practice in the field of odour management in the atmosphere includes a variety of methods of the odour impact assessing. The considered approaches, both predictive and observational (empirical), have their advantages and disadvantages. Thus, atmospheric dispersion modelling is a very valuable predictive tool and plays an important role in assessing ambient odours. However, the models, although based on rigorous quantitative calculations, are a simplification of the real situation. The accuracy of this method is significantly reduced in cases of unpredictable, unplanned or accidental releases. An easier-to-use tool is a qualitative (descriptive) risk-based odour assessment (source-pathway-receptor concept). Empirical approaches (field olfactometry, sniff tests) make it possible to assess odour exposure in given real conditions, while more objective assessment requires long-term studies. The use of instrumental methods is limited by the fact that odours in the air are mainly due to complex multicomponent mixtures of substances with an unknown nature of the combined action, with levels below the detection limits, etc. When developing an odour assessment strategy, it is necessary to select the tools that are most appropriate in each case. According to many authors, to improve the quality and reliability of this assessment in areas where enterprises and other facilities are located, it is advisable to use all available empirical approaches together with modelling, in combination with community surveys and other methods of analyzing the health status of the population. The data obtained as a result of such a comprehensive assessment will make it possible to substantiate measures to reduce air pollution by odorous substances. The literature search was carried out in the English-language text databases PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and in the scientific electronic library eLIBRARY.ru. (RSCI)