Comparison of different approaches used to regulate odours around the world

A number of different countries, and states and local regulatory agencies within countries, have struggled with developing effective odour regulations or guidelines. The challenge is to develop regulations or guidelines that both avoid odour annoyance conditions and are not excessively conservative. This paper will present highlights of odour regulations or guidelines in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and North America. A comparison between the different approaches will be presented. With a number of countries reporting an increase in complaints due to odours, the field of odour assessment is rapidly evolving. Complaints due to odours from livestock facilities are also significantly increasing in many countries. A comparison of approaches used to regulate livestock operations is also included in the paper. The potential impact of European olfactometry standardisation efforts to existing assumptions about odour annoyance or nuisance levels is analysed.