The proposed standard will present a general strategy for analytic odor assessment.

Sep 23, 2025

A proposed standard would be used to help assess environmental odors. The proposed standard (WK72782), being developed by ASTM International’s air quality committee (D22), will present a general strategy for an analytic, odorant-prioritization-based approach to environmental odor assessment.

“The approach in the proposed standard has emerged for its developers from 30 years of practical application to real-world industrial and consumer odor-quality problem solving,” says ASTM International member Jacek Koziel. “The diversity of targeted odorous environments has ranged from agricultural to industrial to consumer products.”

Koziel notes that while the proposed standard is directed at indoor air quality, the GC-olfactometry/odorant prioritization basis described in the practice is the same for all the diverse odor sources. The primary difference is the adoption of appropriate sampling methods for each.

According to Koziel, it has often been assumed that environmental odors have inherently complex chemical compositions, but odor issues are often driven by relatively small subsets of odorants from otherwise complex source emissions.

“The proposed standard will serve as a preliminary screening tool to identify those cases reflecting such relative odor compositional simplicity,” says Koziel, research leader, Plains Area Livestock Nutrient Management Research Unit, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. “Where such simplicity is shown to exist through application of the proposed standard, mitigation, monitoring, and regulatory strategies can be focused onto the simplified odorant field. Such focusing of the chemical source of the malodor problem can serve to shorten the time and cost of odor problem resolution.”

The indoor air quality subcommittee (D22.05) that is developing WK72782 welcomes all parties interested in participating in further development of this and other potentially related proposed standards.

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