The fair of Valencia will celebrate from the 30th May to the 1st June 2007 the 3rd edition of QUALIMETRICS, the fair of Quality, Calibration, Metrology and Instrumentation.

Feria Valencia is hosting the 3rd QUALIMETRICS, Quality, Calibration, Metrology & Instrumentation Fair from 30th May through 1st June 2007.

This third edition of the fair will focus a significant part of its programme of fringe activities on an issue of increasing concern and a challenge which developed societies must address for the better preservation of the environment: the contamination of odours.

QUALIMETRICS 07 has programmed a series of conferences organised by APPLUS, the certification centre, and coordinated by AENOR (Spanish Association for Standardisation and Certification) for Friday 1st June. The different speakers will look at the white paper on the law on odour contamination in Catalonia, the problem of odours in the fight to better protect the atmosphere, the importance of jurisprudence in odour contamination, the accreditation of the UNE-EN-13725 standard, and the latest studies on the environmental impact of odours using dynamic olfactometry.

Olfactometry links origin and influence of bad odours 

One of the most pressing problems is how to recognise when we step over the threshold of what is tolerable and at what point can we legally establish the limits of the permissible in relation to odours. The subjective nature of odours is the main stumbling block when it comes to fixing the limits of tolerance.

At the current moment in time, olfactometry is considered the future standard for measuring odours insofar as other devices such as the so-called “electronic noses” have still not reached a satisfactory degree of reliability.

According to the UNE EN 13725 standard, the concentration of odour is “the number of units of odour per cubic metre in normal conditions”. And this is where olfactometric technology comes into play. Olfactometry can establish a relationship between bad odours and their repercussion in the environment in order to establish the proper corrective measures.

Over recent years, society has become aware of the impact of odour contamination. Proof of this is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2004 to Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck for their work with odorant receptors, establishing the basic principles for recognizing and remembering about 10,000 different odours.

The QUALIMETRICS fair is held on Level 2 Pavilion 4 of the new Feria Valencia exhibition centre, offering a wide range of products, machinery and instrumentation for the quality and metrology industry: instruments for measuring, calibration and testing, plus consultancy, certification and inspection services.

www.feriavalencia.com/qualimetrics

  Here you have a nice article about the problem of odours in Madrid. No approach has been done to solve this problem in the capital of Spain, despite of having a 22.6% of population complaining about odours.