Prospects of the development and harmonization of hygienic standardization taking into account the risk of odour in the ambient air

Introduction. The presence of a specific odour in the ambient air in the areas where various enterprises are located with formal compliance with environmental legislation indicates the need to update the methodology of hygienic standardization of odourous substances. The purpose of the work is to analyze modern methods of the establishment of standards for odourous complex multicomponent mixtures of substances in the atmospheric air and substantiate ways to harmonize them in this field of knowledge. Materials and methods. The paper systematizes existing approaches to regulating the quality of atmospheric air in areas where odourous emissions sources are located, taking into account certain provisions of regulatory and methodological documents, publications on approaches, and criteria for quantitative sanitary and hygienic assessment of the quality of the environment and public health, as well as the authors’ long-term experience in this field. Results. The basic principles of hygienic standardization of the permissible content of odorous mixtures of substances in the atmospheric air taking into account their odour are formulated. The substantiation of hygienic standards is carried out with the allocation of substances identified as priority (indicator), based on the results of studying the production technology and the formation of emissions, olfactory properties of the mixture under experimental conditions, with the possibility of monitoring the established standard in atmospheric air by certified instrumental methods of analysis. Limitations. The limitations of the study are due to the fact that this article does not fully reflect the issues of the development of the entire atmospheric air quality management system taking into account the risk of odour outside the focus of this work, which will be covered in the preparation of the following articles. Conclusion. The ongoing process of harmonization of domestic and foreign approaches used in hygienic standardization including the field of regulation of atmospheric air pollution by specific odours makes it necessary to significantly expand approaches to the issues of rationing and assessment of environmental pollution by complex multicomponent emissions of odour-source enterprises taking into account modern experience.