Sensory Characterization of Emissions from Materials

The exposure-response relationship between the concentration of air pollutants and perceived air quality was studied for eight materials often found indoors and for a mixture of three of the materials. Samples of the materials were placed in a ventilated test chamber. The exhaust air from the test chamber was diluted with different rates of unpolluted air to obtain five different concentrations of polluted air. A sensory panel assessed the perceived quality of the five concentrations of polluted air. The exposure-response relationship differed between the materials and also from the corresponding relationship for human bioeffluents. The exposure-response relationships can be described by straight lines in a log-probit plot and be defined by two constants characteristic for each material. Determination of the two constants characterizing each material requires sensory assessments at least at two pollution concentrations. The sensory pollution load for a material may change with the pollution concentration in the air. The use of a simple measurement method based on a dilution system connected to a ventilated small-scale test chamber is proposed to characterize the emissions from materials in sensory and chemical terms.