Research Article An Innovative Methodological Approach for Monitoring and Chemical Characterization of Odors around Industrial Sites A. Di Gilio , J. Palmisani, and G. de Gennaro Department of Biology, University of Bari Aldo, Moro, Via Orabona 4, 70126 Bari, Italy CorrespondenceshouldbeaddressedtoG.deGennaro;gianluigi.degennaro@uniba.it Received 31 July 2018; Revised 18 September 2018; Accepted 30 September 2018; Published 21 October 2018 AcademicEditor:HelenaA.Flocas Copyright©2018A.DiGilioetal.isisanopenaccessarticledistributedundertheCreativeCommonsAttributionLicense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. is study aims to highlight the potentialities of an innovative methodological approach for monitoring and chemical charac- terization of odors, especially in high concern and complex industrial areas. e proposed approach was developed in order to monitor and identify odor-active compounds responsible for odor annoyance coming from different industrial activities such as landfills,wastewatertreatmentplants,andpetroleumplants.emethodology’sstrengthsareasfollows:(1)thetailoredapproachfor each typology of industrial areas/sites; (2) integration of technologies able to provide real-time information about the emissive sources; (3) mapping of air pollutants on the territory aimed to identify and discriminate among different fugitive emissions responsible for odor annoyance; (4) collection of more representative air samples only during the nuisance events, thanks to the implementation of innovative sampling systems and citizens’ involvement; and (5) increased analytical sensitivity in odor-active VOCsdetection.ismethodologyrevealstobeausefultooltocollectreal-timeinformationabouttheemissionsourcesandtheir impacts on the surrounding area giving credit to citizens’ complaints. Moreover, it allows to overcome the limitations of the conventionalapproachesrelatedtothelackofinstrumentalsensitivityandtoidentifythechemicalcompoundscontributingtothe odor annoyance. 1. Introduction Nowadays,odoremissionsandtheirmonitoringandcontrol are an issue of concern for scientific community and stakeholders.Infact,duringthelastdecades,thenumberof published scientific studies focused on the identification of theodor-activecompoundsemittedbydifferentsourcesand on their correlation with the human perception is consid- erably increased [1–3]. More specifically, the interest about odoremissionsstemsfromthegrowingpublicreactionsand complaints of the citizens living near complex industrial areas and perceiving the odors as a serious threat to their health [4–9]. Environmental malodor in fact could impose physical, psychological, social, and behavioral stress to humans. As a consequence, respiratory symptoms and health impairment could be verified even at odorant ex- posures below irritation thresholds. Moreover, during the last50years,theintensificationofindustrialplantssuchas landfills, composting plants, wastewater treatment plants, petroleum refineries, and livestocks in addition to population growth and residential development at the pe- ripheral and rural areas have increased the number of residents exposed to odors [10–13]. is issue is also ex- acerbated by the difficulty in assessing and regulating odor emissions because odor perception is subjective and the result of the complex interaction of odorant gases in amixture,whichdependsontheconcentrationofindividual odorants, on interaction effects, and on individual-specific factors of the exposed subject [14, 15]. Moreover, the as- sessmentofodorrepresentsanenvironmentalissueofgreat complexitybecauseofthecausalrelationshipbetweenodor events (often characterized by a brief duration) and odor sources. erefore, in order to obtain an exhaustive com- prehension of the odor emission phenomena, high time resolution,accurate,reliable,andreproducibleexperimental dataareneeded[16].Nowadays,themostusedmethodology forodoremissionassessmentisdynamicolfactometry.is technique allows to obtain measurements of odor concen- trations but is not addressed to discriminate each odor- activecompoundandtherelativecontributiontotheoverall Hindawi Advances in Meteorology Volume 2018, Article ID 1567146, 8 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/1567146