Human Responses to Environmental Odors

Human Responses to Environmental Odors presents some of the approaches to the study of the human olfactory response. This book contains 11 chapters that describe the complexity in human olfaction. This text deals first with the sensory and physicochemical aspects of odor. These topics are followed by discussions on the sampling, transport, dispersal, odor intensities and preferences, and psychophysical scaling. The discussion then shifts to the applications of some previously slighted fundamentals, such as vapor pressure phenomena and the chemical stability of odorants in the atmosphere. Other chapters are devoted to community odor problems and annoyance reactions, combustion odors, and laser Raman spectroscopy. These chapters include odor measurement and control. This book is of great value to flavor scientists, chemists, physiologists, and behavioral scientists.

List of Contributors Preface Psychophysical Scaling of Odor Attributes of Odors Scales of Measurement Construction of a Psychophysical Scale Comparison of Scaling Techniques Form of the Psychophysical Function Procedural Variables Adaptation, Masking, and Mixtures References An Evaluation of Community Problems Caused by Industrial Odors Introduction Attitude Surveys Sensory Techniques National Survey of the Odor Problem Social and Economic Impact of Odors Chemical and Instrumental Methods References Lasar Raman Spectroscopy I. Introduction II. Principles of Vibrational Spectroscopy ΙII. Raman Instrumentation IV. Applications of Raman Spectroscopy to Chemical Problems V. Special Topics VI. Epilogue References Method and Theory in the Study of Odor Preferences Theories about Odor Preference Studies of Children’s Judgments of Odors The Origin of Odor Preferences Familiarity and Odor Preference The Study of Odor Associations Summary and Conclusions References Sensory Evaluation of Odor Intensity at the Source and in the Ambient Air I. Introduction II. Equipment III. Methods for Sensory Source Strength Analysis IV. Sensory Evaluation of Odorous Air Pollutants in the Ambient Air References Transport and Dispersal of Odors I. General Characteristics of Dispersion in the Atmosphere II. The Specific Odor Dispersion Problem III. A Field Study to Check the Theoretical Odor Dispersion Model IV. Conclusions and Recommendations Appendix: Determination of the Parameters σyr, σzr, and σzc List of Symbols References Vapor Pressures and Raoult’s Law Deviations in Relation to Odor Enhancement and Suppression I. Introduction II. Vapor Pressures in Odorant Mixtures III. Evaporatio