Nuisance environmental odours and their effects

Can nuisance odours even pose a health risk?

Odorous substances generally do not cause illness or damage to health directly, but through the reactions they trigger they have an adverse effect on people's well-being.

A perennial problem

The exploration and study of the odorous substances released from unpleasant odour sources, their effects on residents living near those sources and the reactions they trigger began as early as the 1940s.

People living nearby know particularly well the effects of plants and sites located in or near residential areas, or of emission sources sited without regard to the prevailing wind direction.

Investigating odour sources

Odour perception and the effects triggered by odours are influenced by many individual, subjective factors.

Over recent decades, several studies have been carried out to explore the effects of odorous substances from odour sources on the population living around them, and the reactions triggered by the odours. As a result, a picture has emerged of the problems that nuisance odours can cause.

The results of these studies are described in detail in the Odour Protection Handbook, which makes it clear that ongoing disputes and conflicts with neighbours who keep livestock always emerge as the most common problem.

Survey participants also frequently mention fear of air pollution and disruption of everyday life.

The researchers also collected the observed effects and reactions. In addition to the general reactions triggered by nuisance odours, they mentioned emotional reactions and vegetative (autonomic) reactions arising from the presence of the odour.

To sum up, it can generally be stated that odorous substances usually do not cause illness or damage to health directly, but have an adverse effect on people's well-being through the reactions they trigger.

Resident study

In parallel with this study, volunteer residents kept a detailed diary for a year, recording their observations about their neighbourhood, the odours they noticed, their well-being and their state of health.

As a result of the studies described above, 78% of residents named the landfill site as a nuisance odour source, and rated the burden caused by the landfill (on a scale of 1-7) at 3.77, ahead of the nuisance caused by odours from traffic, local heating, a coffee roasting plant in the area and even pig farming.

Both odour-specific and non-specific complaints increased significantly as the distance from the landfill decreased (and the number of odour hours increased). According to the study results, residents' well-being was further worsened by a sense of helplessness and the lack of any means of defence, so psychological factors also contributed to reduced tolerance.

Data from neighbouring countries

In Hungary, the size of the population affected by unpleasant, nuisance odours is not known, and no study has yet been carried out to estimate or determine the number of people affected. However, the results of another series of studies carried out among the Austrian population over 15 years of age and published in 1991 may give an idea of the likely number of people affected in Hungary.

Based on the studies carried out there, 23.3% of the Austrian population (approximately 1.4 million citizens) stated that they were exposed to nuisance odours where they lived (3.8%, i.e. about 231,000 people, reported strongly disturbing odours, 7.7%, i.e. about 467,000 people, disturbing odours, and 11.8%, i.e. about 716,000 people, slightly disturbing odours).

Of those experiencing nuisance, 43.8% named traffic, 32.9% various plants, 12% domestic heating supply (e.g. space heating), and 9.8% other sources (e.g. livestock keeping, service activities, etc.) as the source of the disturbing, unpleasant odour.

The results of a recent survey in Germany also draw attention to the significant problem of environmental odour. They show that for a large part of the population the most disturbing environmental impact is no longer noise, but unpleasant environmental odour.