Don Wright & Associates, LLC, Georgetown, TX 78628, USA.
Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Dec 11;18(24):13085. doi: 10.3390/ijerph182413085.
Solving environmental odor issues can be confounded by many analytical, technological, and socioeconomic factors. Considerable know-how and technologies can fail to properly identify odorants responsible for the downwind nuisance odor and, thereby, focus on odor mitigation strategies. We propose enabling solutions to environmental odor issues utilizing troubleshooting techniques developed for the food, beverage, and consumer products industries. Our research has shown that the odorant impact-priority ranking process can be definable and relatively simple. The initial challenge is the prioritization of environmental odor character from the perspective of the impacted citizenry downwind. In this research, we utilize a natural model from the animal world to illustrate the rolling unmasking effect (RUE) and discuss it more systematically in the context of the proposed environmental odorant prioritization process. Regardless of the size and reach of an odor source, a simplification of odor character and composition typically develops with increasing dilution downwind. An extreme odor simplification-upon-dilution was demonstrated for the prehensile-tailed porcupine (P.T. porcupine); its downwind odor frontal boundary was dominated by a pair of extremely potent character-defining odorants: (1) 'onion'/'body odor' and (2) 'onion'/'grilled' odorants. In contrast with the outer-boundary simplicity, the near-source assessment presented considerable compositional complexity and composite odor character difference. The ultimate significance of the proposed RUE approach is the illustration of naturally occurring phenomena that explain why some environmental odors and their sources can be challenging to identify and mitigate using an analytical-only approach (focused on compound identities and concentrations). These approaches rarely move beyond comprehensive lists of volatile compounds emitted by the source. The novelty proposed herein lies in identification of those few compounds responsible for the downwind odor impacts and requiring mitigation focus.
解决环境气味问题可能会受到许多分析、技术和社会经济因素的影响。大量的专业知识和技术可能无法正确识别导致下风异味的气味物质，从而无法集中精力采取气味缓解策略。我们建议利用食品、饮料和消费品行业开发的故障排除技术来解决环境气味问题。我们的研究表明，气味物质影响优先级排序过程是可以定义的，而且相对简单。最初的挑战是从下风受影响居民的角度对环境气味特征进行优先级排序。在这项研究中，我们利用动物界的一个自然模型来说明滚动掩蔽效应（RUE），并在提出的环境气味物质优先级排序过程的背景下更系统地讨论它。无论气味源的大小和范围如何，随着下风稀释程度的增加，气味特征和成分通常会简化。对于卷尾食蚁兽（P.T. porcupine），我们演示了极端的气味简化-稀释现象；其下风气味前沿边界由一对非常强烈的特征定义气味物质主导：（1）“洋葱”/“体臭”和（2）“洋葱”/“烤”气味物质。与外边界的简单性相比，近源评估呈现出相当大的组成复杂性和复合气味特征差异。所提出的 RUE 方法的最终意义在于，它说明了自然发生的现象，这些现象解释了为什么一些环境气味及其来源可能难以通过仅基于分析的方法（侧重于化合物的身份和浓度）来识别和缓解。这些方法很少能超越源排放的挥发性化合物的综合清单。本文的新颖之处在于识别出那些对下风气味影响负责并需要缓解重点的少数化合物。
