You are here:
PERCEPTION OF ODOR AND NASAL PUNGENCY FROM HOMOLOGOUS SERIES OF VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
Citation:
ComettoMuniz, J. E. AND W. S. Cain. PERCEPTION OF ODOR AND NASAL PUNGENCY FROM HOMOLOGOUS SERIES OF VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS. INDOOR AIR. Munksgaard, Copenhagen, Denmark, 4(3):140-145, (1994).
Impact/Purpose:
Published Journal Article
Description:
The paper discusses results of tests of nasal detection thresholds for airborne chemicals in a group of anosmics (i.e., subjects lacking a functional sense of smell) and in a group of age-, gender-, and smoking-status-matched normosmics (i.e., subjects with normal olfaction). Anosmics provided odor-unbiased nasal pungency (irritation) thresholds. ormosmics provided odor thresholds. omologous series of alcohols, acetates, and ketones served as stimuli. ye irritation thresholds were also measured for selected acetates. ost substances evoked pungency (i.e., were detected by the anosmics). ll sensory thresholds decreased systematically with carbon chain length. he gap between pungency and odor grew larger with increasing carbon chain length. ungency thresholds (but not odor thresholds) showed a uniform linear relationship of slope close to unity with saturated vapor concentration, irrespective of chemical functionality or carbon chain length. his suggests that pungency from nonreactive airborne chemicals rests heavily on a relatively unspecific physical interaction with a susceptible biophase. f relevance to indoor environments, such an interaction opens the possibility for a high degree of sensory addition of pungency from individual components of complex mixtures resulting in noticeable irritation even when each component is at well below threshold.
URLs/Downloads:
Journal Access
PERCEPTION OF ODOR AND NASAL PUNGENCY FROM HOMOLOGOUS SERIES OF VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS (PDF, NA pp, 1877 KB, about PDF)