As many of you know, there was an active CEN group dealing with the standardisation of a procedure to validate the use of IOMS (Instrumental Odour Monitoring System) for odour measurements. Still, after 20 meetings over six years, the group ended the time assigned without presenting a final draft standard for voting to the TC 264 "Air Quality".
The good news is, however, that the CEN Technical Committee 264 on Air Quality has re-introduced a new Work Item (WI) on the agenda. This WI re-starts the standard drafting process in WG 41 with a new fresh timeline. UNI (Italian National Standardisation body) is now responsible for continuing the work performed until now by the Dutch Standardization Body NEN.
UNI – Ente Nazionale Italiano di Unificazione - kindly offered to take over the WG 41 Secretariat as of 01 January 2022. However, UNI has conditioned its budget on this WI under the condition of having an Italian convenor. Therefore, one of the first consequences of this change was the replacement of the previous convenor, Ton van Harreveld. However, this was no big issue, as Mr Harreveld had expressed that he wished to step down from his post by the end of 2021.
Dr Domenico Cipriano, from Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico – RSE S.p.A. (Italy), has taken over this position since 01 January 2022. In addition, Dr Federico Turano is now acting as the new Secretary to WG 41.
Several meetings have taken place online and face-to-face. As a result, there is a new period of 3 years for developing a new Standard. The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) has re-started the discussion of the new IOMS standard that could be published in 2026-2027.
To date, it is difficult to measure an unknown odour electronically; however, using pattern recognition techniques and a suitable sensor, there are ways to monitor odour. In fact, at this stage, there are several IOMSs commercially available.
If you find this article interesting, you might also be interested in these articles:
- The long and winding road of CEN/TC264/WG41 developing a standard for validating Instrumental Odour Measurement Systems
- WG41 meeting in Barcelona
- WG41 meeting on Instrumental Odour Monitoring Systems in Bilbao, Spain
- First Meeting of the CEN group dealing with gas sensors and pattern recognition.