Panellists and Exposure Risk: What Should Be Considered?

Abstract

Dynamic olfactometry involves human examiners for quantifying odour. Examiners directly inhale, although diluted, the increasingly concentrated odorous samples and, during the analysis, they are thus exposed to substances potentially dangerous to human health. EN 13725 still does not propose a protocol for assessing the risk related to such activities. In the scientific literature, only few studies have addressed this issue, with discrepant approaches based on a deterministic risk assessment. However, the risk assessment needs the definition of exposure parameters that are strictly linked to their specific working time and the activity of the olfactometric laboratory, in terms of hours worked, number and type of samples analysed. Therefore, a deterministic risk assessment method remains limited to the experience of a single laboratory. Despite the importance of the topic, many aspects of the subject still remain unexplored. This paper aims to highlight the critical aspects of deterministic approaches available in the scientific literature (mainly due to the variability of exposure parameters connected with the specific working activity of every single panellist and each olfactometric laboratory and the necessity of conducting risk assessment within 30 h permitted by EN 13725) and evaluate the possible new solutions to conduct risk assessment for olfactometric workers.