Cain W S, Leaderer B P, Cannon L, Tosun T, Ismail H
Am Ind Hyg Assoc J. 1987 Jan;48(1):47-55. doi: 10.1080/15298668791384355.
Odorization of inert gas can serve to warn workers in an enclosed space about gas leaking into the space. This psychophysical investigation, performed under conditions of directed attention, examined two candidates for possible odorization of argon:pyridine and cis-3-hexen-1-ol. Detection thresholds for pyridine and cis-3-hexen-1-ol in argon were 106 ppb and 19 ppb, respectively. Practice over four days yielded modest improvement in the detection of both odorants. For cis-3-hexen-1-ol, smokers had marginally lower thresholds than nonsmokers and older participants had slightly higher thresholds than younger participants. Gender, smoking status and age had no reliable influence on threshold for pyridine. This outcome indicated desirable perceptual stability for pyridine. Additional experiments dealt with the perceived intensity of pyridine and cis-3-hexen-1-ol over time in the realistic setting of an environmental chamber. Visitors to the chamber and occupants in the chamber assessed perceived magnitude at 5-min intervals for up to 60 min during injections of odorized argon into the chamber. Participants could gauge and track the concentration of pyridine much better than that of cis-3-hexen-1-ol. This held true for occupants almost to the same degree as visitors, though occupants inevitably exhibited some olfactory adaptation. Hence, the suprathreshold measurements also gave strong relative endorsement to pyridine. Calculations based on the experimental results indicated that odorization of the inert gas stream with 3 to 10 ppm (v/v) pyridine should suffice to warn occupants or visitors of an argon buildup of any severity. Field studies should permit a definitive judgment of the best concentration to use in practice.
对惰性气体进行加臭处理有助于警示封闭空间内的工人有气体泄漏到该空间。这项在定向注意力条件下进行的心理物理学研究，考察了两种可能用于氩气加臭的候选物质：吡啶和顺-3-己烯-1-醇。氩气中吡啶和顺-3-己烯-1-醇的检测阈值分别为106 ppb和19 ppb。连续四天的练习使两种气味剂的检测能力略有提高。对于顺-3-己烯-1-醇，吸烟者的阈值略低于不吸烟者，年龄较大的参与者的阈值略高于年龄较小的参与者。性别、吸烟状况和年龄对吡啶的阈值没有可靠影响。这一结果表明吡啶具有理想的感知稳定性。额外的实验研究了在环境舱的实际环境中，吡啶和顺-3-己烯-1-醇随时间的感知强度。在向舱内注入加臭氩气的过程中，舱内访客和舱内人员每隔5分钟评估一次感知强度，持续60分钟。参与者对吡啶浓度的判断和追踪能力比对顺-3-己烯-1-醇的要好得多。对于舱内人员来说，情况几乎与访客相同，尽管舱内人员不可避免地会表现出一些嗅觉适应。因此，阈上测量也强烈支持使用吡啶。根据实验结果进行的计算表明，用3至10 ppm（v/v）的吡啶对惰性气体流进行加臭处理，应该足以警示舱内人员或访客任何严重程度的氩气积聚情况。实地研究应能对实际应用中最佳的使用浓度做出明确判断。
