International experience of regulation of odourous substances in the ambient air (literature review)

Abstract

The article provides an overview of the foreign literature data on the justification of permissible content of odourous substances in the ambient air. The process of harmonization of Russian legislation with international norms and rules, including the field of regulating atmospheric air pollution with specific odours, is shown to necessitate significantly expanding approaches to the issues of standardization and assessing environmental pollution by emissions from enterprises - odour sources. Analysis of foreign experience in odour management in the environment shows the main criteria for assessing air quality to include the absence of “annoyance” of the population by odours, maximum permissible concentrations for individual substances, maximum permissible concentrations for ambient odours, permissible odour frequency, minimum distances from the source, odour intensity, the maximum permissible amount of emissions, compliance with technological standards. Accordingly, in different countries recommended or mandatory limiting values were established on the base on which criterion for assessing odour exposure is decisive in this case. Typically, different jurisdictions use more than one approach to odour assessment, as do various regulatory indicators depending on the situation with the type of enterprise, the characteristics of residential sites and other receptor points. According to many authors, the application of various air quality standards for odour and a carefully thought-out approach to odour management can successfully or completely resolve most conflicts when working with the local population. The search for sources devoted to the issues of standardization of odourous substances was carried out in the text databases as PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, Web of Science, Research Gate, Springer Link and the scientific electronic library eLibrary.ru. The article analyzes the articles of journals indexed in the RSCI, Scopus, for 2001-2021.