EVALUATION OF INDOOR PRODUCTS BY SENSORY AND CHEMICAL TESTING. PART II: COMPARISON OF OLFACTOMETRIC AND VOC ANALYSIS

Evaluation of building products for indoor use with respect to an influence on human wellbeing is a topic of multi-disciplinary concern. Climatic parameters, inorganic and organic contaminants as well as psychological factors, etc., are frequently discussed as contributors to an impact on indoor air quality and SBS. Two approaches were compared for their usability for evaluation of emissions from indoor products in emission test chambers. The first is olfactory testing in which odor units, odor intensity and hedonic effects are determined by a sensory panel. The second is VOC analysis in which concentrations of compounds in the test chamber are quantified by sampling on Tenax TA and thermal desorption GC/MS. The latter also employs the TVOCGC/MS-method according to ECA-report no. 19. No simple correlation between VOC analysis and sensory testing was found. Both methods bear their assets and drawbacks and for that reason complement one another.