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A Bisensory Method for Odor and Irritation Detection of Formaldehyde and Pyridine

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Chemosensory Perception

Abstract

A bisensory method was developed for determining the psychometric functions and absolute thresholds for odor and sensory irritation of two odorous irritants. Individual and group thresholds for formaldehyde or pyridine were measured for 31 age-matched subjects (18–35 years old). P 50 absolute thresholds were for formaldehyde odor 110 ppb (range 23–505), for pyridine odor 77 ppb (range 20–613), and for pyridine irritation 620 ppb (range 90–3,656); too few subjects’ formaldehyde irritation thresholds were possible to determine (human exposures limited to 1 ppm). In spite of large interindividual differences, all thresholds for irritation were higher than for odor. The average slopes of the 62 psychometric functions for odor and the 32 possible for sensory irritation were highest for formaldehyde odor (83% per log ppb) and equal for pyridine odor and irritation (68% per log ppb). The bisensory method for measuring odor and sensory irritation jointly produced detection functions and absolute thresholds compatible with those earlier published; however, a steeper slope for sensory irritation than odor was expected for pyridine. The bisensory method is intended for measuring odor and sensory irritation to broadband mixtures and dynamic exposures, like indoor air.

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Notes

  1. The perceptual word sensory irritation is used in this text because it translates best to the Swedish word ‘sensorisk irritation’ used in the present experiments. References cited have sometimes used other concepts in their research, for example ‘nasal pungency’ but ‘eye irritation’, ‘ocular irritation’ and ‘skin irritation’. Some have replaced ‘nasal pungency’ with ‘nasal irritation’. The authors prefer ‘chemesthesis’ or ‘trigeminal chemosensory system’ (supplementary to ‘olfaction’) to the much broader term ‘somatosensory system’, which is frequently used, for example, in pain research.

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Acknowledgments

This research was sponsored by research grants from the Swedish Research Council FORMAS and the EU FP6 Coordination Action MINET–Measuring the Impossible. The authors appreciate greatly Dr. Ingegerd Johansson’s contributions to the development of the olfactometry and the instrumentation for chemical measurement used in the present experiments.

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  1. Hassan Shams Esfandabad

    Present address: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden

    Birgitta Berglund, Anders Höglund & Hassan Shams Esfandabad

  2. Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, P.O. Box 210, 171 77, Stockholm, Sweden

    Birgitta Berglund

  3. Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, Teknikringen 56, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44, Stockholm, Sweden

    Anders Höglund

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  1. Birgitta Berglund
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Correspondence to Birgitta Berglund.

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Berglund, B., Höglund, A. & Esfandabad, H.S. A Bisensory Method for Odor and Irritation Detection of Formaldehyde and Pyridine. Chem. Percept. 5, 146–157 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12078-011-9101-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12078-011-9101-9

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