The odour level: the key parameter to distinguish odorants abatement from odour abatement

After decades of intense research work in Germany on odours and odour annoyance as environmental stressors and after publication of numerous VDI Guidelines on this topic it is high time that a fundamental misunderstanding be eliminated. As a consequence, measurement and assessment of odours and odorants need to be revised under that well-known but neglected aspect: A clear distinction has to be made between odour abatement and odorants abatement. The terminological difference is not just a small linguistic matter. It also entrains the necessity to know more about the individual emission characteristics ("olfactory fingerprint") of a plant.