E 07 - Odour - Oppl - Worldwide laboratory testing ... · samples from VOC test chambers into gas bags and then ... // ... E 07 - Odour - Oppl

October 2015 www.eurofins.com/odour

Sensory testing, odourDifferent approaches, different test methods

Future relevance in Germany and in Scandinavia

Consequences of the German pilot study after its conclusion

Reinhard OpplVOC Certification Manager

[email protected]

October 2015 www.eurofins.com/odour 2

Odour

Can be an issue in indoor air quality assessments

Is not hazardous, but can cause stress reactions

ISO 16000-28 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


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. 1000 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. 2014 in Germany: 400.000 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.


AgBB evaluation scheme

Blue Angel ecolabel uses the same scheme,

just with more stringent limit values


Sensory assessment – test methods

Dynamic odour testing in a ventilated test chamber:

ISO 16000-28: 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 195651)

Automotive industry: VDA 270 and similar methods

Odour evaluation indoors: VDI 4302-1, -2


Sensory evaluation

Selection of appropriate sensory measure

Just acceptableJust unacceptable

Acceptance Hedonic Perceived intensity

Neither pleasant nor unpleasant

Clearly unacceptable

Clearly acceptable

Very pleasantUnpleasant

Scale: from 0 to 20 pi

similar for M1, DICL


Sensory evaluation of construction products – air sampled in bags

Device for emptying gas bags


Sensory evaluation of construction products – CLIMPAC like test chamber


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)


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


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?


"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

International comparability


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


AgBB pilot project - Hearing October 2015

Some notes Summary of presentation of WKI project leader: ISO 16000-28 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

16000-28 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 16000-28 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.

https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/service/termine/konferenz-abschluss-pilotphase-agbb-geruchspruefung.


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 16000-28 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)


Recommendations

No obligation to report UBA and ISO 16000-28 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 16000-28, 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.


Documents

E 07 - Odour - Oppl - Worldwide laboratory testing ... · samples from VOC test chambers into gas bags and then ... // ... E 07 - Odour - Oppl