CEN standard group WG41 on instrumental odour monitoring meets in Trieste

On 20 and 21 February the CEN/TC264/WG41 working group met for its 7th meeting on a mission to set guidelines for instrumental odour monitoring, convened by Odournet founder Ton van Harreveld. This is challenging, because there is a wide variety of devices that aim to monitor odours.

The main items discussed focussed on the framework of definitions and on the approach to validate the indicator values of the instrumental odour monitors.

• What does the result of a device say about what a human nose would perceive?
• How does this standard relate to the work of WG42 on air quality sensors?
• And is standard EN14181 for continuous emission monitoring applicable to odour monitoring too?

Many questions to resolve for the 22 experts around the table. Next meeting planned for June in Delft, the Netherlands, in the office of our secretariat, handled with a steady hand by Ted den Heijer and Machiel van Dalen. Thanks to all who contributed!