Odor and odorous chemical emissions from animal buildings: Part 4- correlations between sensory and chemical measurements

This study supplemented the National Air Emissions Monitoring Study (NAEMS) by making comprehensive measurements, over a full calendar year, of odor emissions from five swine and four dairy rooms/buildings (subset of the total number of buildings monitored for the NAEMS project). The measurements made in this project included both standard human sensory measurements using dynamic forced-choice olfactometer and a novel chemical analysis technique for odorous compounds found in these emissions. Odor and hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) and ammonia (NH₃) concentrations for all dairy and swine buildings had a statistically significant correlation. A higher number of correlations between odor and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were found for the five swine rooms/buildings (two rooms in a pig finishing barn, two sow gestation barns, and a farrowing room) compared to the four dairy buildings. Phenol and 4-methyl phenol (p-cresol) concentrations were well correlated (R² > 50%) with odor concentrations in the five swine rooms/buildings but not significantly correlated in the four dairy buildings.