An interaction model for odour intensity

A laboratory study has been carried out to investigate the exposure response relationshipsbetween perceived air quality (PAQ) and concentration of pollutants. The objective was todevelop an interaction model for odour intensity, which allows predicting the perception of acombination of odours on base of the data for the single pollution sources. In the experiments10-12 persons assessed the PAQ in decipolB directly. Three different materials served aspollution sources. The exposure response relationship of the single pollution sources and thecombinations of at maximum two sources were investigated. Afterwards it was calculated theexposure response relationship of the combination using different mathematic models. Thecomparison between experimental and calculated data has shown that the perceived air qualityof a combination of two different pollution sources can be added or subtracted quite similar todifferent sound levels. A simplification in the equation of the exposure response relationshipsallows a easy and fast calculation of the PAQ.