Sensory testing, odour. Reinhard Oppl

Transcription

1 Sensory testing, odour Different approaches, different test methods Future relevance in Germany and in Scandinavia Consequences of the German pilot study after its conclusion Reinhard Oppl VOC Certification Manager October

2 Odour Can be an issue in indoor air quality assessments Is not hazardous, but can cause stress reactions ISO describes some odour testing methods and ratings AgBB scheme 2012 included odour testing in VOC emissions evaluation Two years pilot phase for evaluation of the testing method before decision on compulsory integration in evaluation scheme Blue Angel intends to follow GUT, M1 and Danish DICL label use other odour test methods October

3 Need for action? German AGÖF consortium: 1700 complaints on indoor air in 6 years, that is on average 300 per year. Part of this is caused by bad odour. Estimation: The same number goes to competitors (such as Eurofins), and another same number goes to public agencies and Berufsgenossenschaften (work insurance). Resulting: max complaints on bad indoor air per year in Germany. Many of these complaints are not caused by odourous products, maybe 10% = 100 complaints on bad odour per year in Germany in Germany: new buildings, plus maybe 4 millions renovations (= every 10 years in 40 millions appartments): 4-5 millions construction / decoration works per year in Germany. Fraction of odour complaints then is around 0,025 per mill (0,0025 %) of all performed construction works. Does this justify routine odour testing with construction products? Reply of Umweltbundesamt and AgBB: YES. Reply of DIBt: Rather NO. Reply of concerned industry: NO. October

4 AgBB evaluation scheme Blue Angel ecolabel uses the same scheme, just with more stringent limit values October

5 Sensory assessment test methods Dynamic odour testing in a ventilated test chamber: ISO : Odour testing standard for product emissions Finland: M1 for construction products: Odour acceptance Danish Indoor Climate Label: Odour acceptance and intensity Static odour test in a desiccator: GUT: Odour of textile floorings (SNV ) Automotive industry: VDA 270 and similar methods Odour evaluation indoors: VDI , -2 October

6 Sensory evaluation Selection of appropriate sensory measure Acceptance Hedonic Perceived intensity Unpleasant Neither pleasant nor unpleasant Very pleasant Clearly acceptable similar for M1, DICL Just acceptable Just unacceptable Scale: from 0 to 20 pi Clearly unacceptable October

7 Sensory evaluation of construction products air sampled in bags Device for emptying gas bags October

8 Sensory evaluation of construction products CLIMPAC like test chamber October

9 Odour testing how to perform Odourless environment Fast inhalation of tested air once or twice; results are averaged; important aspects are (among others): Number of panelists Diversity of panelists (sex, age, ) Sufficient air flow for excluding any dilution by surrounding air during inhalation Breaks in odourless environment Limited duration of odour testing activity per day No eating, smoking etc. between two tests Inclusion of a blank test (empty test chamber) October

10 Odour testing how to calibrate Obtain individual response of panel members to a series of dilutions of acetone or n-butanol, depending on the applied methodology. Challenge: Purity of the calibration standard acetone Calculation of total response of the panel Variation of participants in the panel such that the whole panel delivers the expected response October

11 Open questions Reproducibility of odour test results? For one odour panel, for one person, between different laboratories? Quality of calibration of odour panels? Do you need separate odour testing chambers, or can you take air samples from VOC test chambers into gas bags and then evaluate these air samples? Will laboratories from different regions, countries, culture areas deliver comparable test results? October

12 International comparability "Odour evaluations (table 5) are subjective and perceived differently in the different regions, China, UK or Asia." Static odour test: 1 hour drying, 24 hours conditioning, 8 panelists rated from least odour (1) to most odour (8). Carlo Testa, Louise Taylor, Ralf Taube: Meeting Current and Future Legislations with Low Emission Coalescents, Presentation at ECS Congress, 2013 October

13 Sensory evaluation AgBB pilot project Goal: Validation of odour testing method for construction products Round robin tests, evaluation of the results Parameters: Intensity and hedonic Duration 2 years, concluded mit 2015 Leader: WKI, Braunschweig / Germany, Prof. Salthammer October

14 AgBB pilot project - Hearing October 2015 Some notes Summary of presentation of WKI project leader: ISO is fragile, not very robust, not suitable as routine test. Small changes of testing design can induce large changes of test result. It will not be possible to improve the precision of ± 1,5-2 PI, even though ISO test is significantly better than other and earlier test methods. Will there be an adaptation of panels smelling always the same type of products? (e.g. always only wooden products, or always only textile floorings) Psychological factors play a huge role when evaluating odour. Hedonic is hardly suitable for assessments. Limit values that shall be monitored by ISO are not suitable as approval criteria - first the method needs to be improved significantly. Now we wait on the presentation slides being posted for download from German Umweltbundesamt. October

15 AgBB pilot project - Hearing October 2015 Some notes DIBt: No odour testing for national approvals before no significant improvement of the methodology is reached. Revision of ISO has started Proposal of Mrs. Müller, inventor of the odour test method preferred by German UBA: Regulatory limit values (AgBB/DIBt): Intensity 11 (0 to 20), Hedonic -2 (+4 to -4) Limit values of voluntary labels (Blue Angel): Intensity 7 (0 to 20), Hedonic -1 (+4 to -4) October

16 Recommendations No obligation to report UBA and ISO odour testing. But market may not wait until then. GUT, M1 and DICL require other sort of odour tests already now. If you need odour tests (ISO , GUT, M1, DICL): Do not expect too high precision and reproducibility. Eurofins still shares the concerns regarding reliability and international comparability of odour testing. But if our customers need odour tests then we can provide these. October

17 October