Ecolo Odor Control Systems Worldwide

access to products and information. It seems to us that this bottom-line focus and direct access are also at work in the odour control business.

What do you get when you search for “odour control” on the Web? Here’s the first screen of results from a recent search using Yahoo. It shows a range of companies offering a range of products and technologies oriented to a range of markets. Perhaps most importantly the particular companies/products/technologies that you go on to investigate is your choice alone to make. If your choice is biased, the bias will be your own rather than a consultant’s. In addition, since most Web sites invite you to submit an information request or order by e-mail, the time and effort you invest in getting a response are much reduced.

The community odour initiative is another recent phenomenon that promotes direct access to odour control information, technologies and solutions. Arising from the widespread and intensely felt effects of odour pollution, community odour initiatives typically bring together diverse stakeholders with broad mandates to identify primary and secondary problems, to evaluate alternative policy options and technologies and over their limited lives, to develop a consensus on a preferred course of action.

In 1991, the Lambton Industrial Society’s (LIS) odour panel assessment of industrial area odours in Sarnia, Ontario (see Ortech 1992) may have been the first of the modern community odour initiatives. An important consequence of the Sarnia initiative is that odour complaints from the public are almost as likely to be directed to LIS for remedial action, as to the OMOEE (Munro 1996).

In 1993 the Legislative Assembly of North Carolina initiated, in partnership with the state university, an extensive two-year investigation by the Swine Odor Task Force (SOTF 1995). This community odour inititive had been downloaded fro the Web. The complecities of swine odours are documented in Chapter Two of the SOTF report. Since our experience in odour control tells us that they may be generalized for all types of industrial odours, we summarize them here:

Odourous mixtures vary with location, operation suze and type, production practices, season, temperature, humidity, time of day, wind speed and direction.
Human sensitivities to industrial odours are influenced by personal preferences, opinions, experiences, and sensitivities of olfactory systems
Many odourous compounds attach themselves to dust which can concentrate and prolong their offensiveness
Offensiveness does not always correspond to intensity; since the human nose is the best odour detector, the best evaluation methods involve panels of people
The perception of odour is a function of control- people can cope better if they believe they can do something about odours; understanding- tolerance is higher if the source of the odou is understood; context- people react as much to the context as to the odour itself; and exposure- habituation to an odour occurs over time
Industrial odours adversely affect one’s outlook and may affect one’s physical and mental health- complainants cite discomfort, concerns for mental and psychological welfare of exposed children, declines in property values, increases in insects and rodents; more research is needed to evaluate the implications for human health.
Public reaction to siting of new facilities is similar to the NIMBY syndrome familiar from landfill and incinerator proposals.
Documented in this way, the complecities of industrial odour problems seem to make the community odour initiative not just an appropriate solution, but also a necessary solution.