A 'smelly' workplace may threaten productivity and emotional stability

Indoor air quality in a building is a function of a series of variables which include the quality of the outdoor air, the design of the ventilation and air-conditioning system, the conditions in which this system operates and is serviced, the compartmentalization of the building and the presence of indoor sources of contaminants and their magnitude.

By way of summary, it may be noted that the most common defects are the result of inadequate ventilation, contamination generated indoors and contamination coming from outside.

Smell should also be considered as part of indoor air quality, because it is often the parameter that ends up being the defining factor. The combination of a certain smell with the slight irritating effect of a compound in indoor air can lead building occupants to define its quality as “fresh” and “clean” or as “stale” and “polluted”. Smell is therefore important when defining the indoor air quality.

While odours objectively depend on the presence of compounds in quantities above their olfactory thresholds, they are very often evaluated from a strictly subjective point of view. It should also be kept in mind that the perception of an odour may result from smells of many different compounds and that temperature and humidity may also affect its characteristics. 

From the standpoint of perception there are four characteristics that allow us to define and measure odours, namely intensity, quality, tolerability and threshold. When considering indoor air, however, it is very difficult to “measure” odours from a chemical standpoint.

Odourants are volatile molecules released into the air. Once detected, odours seem always to evoke some sort of response, people either “like” the odour or they do not.  Because of the tremendous variation in perception of smells, it is difficult to classify odours objectively. Odours are also more annoying to employees who work in clean environments, such as Office Buildings.

In some industrial situations, the odour thresholds of certain toxic chemicals serve as a good warning system and should be heeded. However, for the majority of volatiles associated with non-industrial indoor environments, odour detection thresholds and health effects thresholds, if any exist, are separated by orders of magnitude.

Despite their relative harmlessness, it is important to consider the effects of odours on susceptible populations. One of the few examples of authentic health effects attributable to odour is odour-induced bronchospasm in asthmatics.  However, in the context of indoor air quality, odours, particularly if they are unknown, usually present more of a threat to productivity and emotional stability than to human health.

AirCHECK conducts specialist Indoor Air Quality Surveys and can assist your company to investigate the source of odours in the workplace, as well as provide practicale solutions to improve poor indoor ar quality.