[Evaluating guidelines for "selection and training of staff for odor analysis"--a 7-year longitudinal study].

During a 7 years longitudinal study on a representative group the guideline "selection and schooling of personal for odour analysis" was reexamined. It could be shown that the selection in two steps is well suited to recognize anosmia and hyposmia, respectively and that normal osmia is well to be characterized by smell scores of 30-42. A statistical significant training effect could be shown with the qualitative test for training of the odour memory as well as the articulation in describing of smell impressions. The result of the rank order test demonstrate the practicable subdivision of the odour intensity into 5 degrees.