Guidance on the Control of Odour and Noise from ... - Defra

2 Background
2.1 Odour
2.1.1 Odour and nuisance
Objectionable and offensive odours can cause significant adverse effects on people’s
lives and well being. Information on the odour nuisance from commercial kitchens is
limited although the Chartered Institute of Environment Health (CIEH) has carried out
surveys of Local Authorities to quantify the level of complaints made relating to odour
nuisance in general. Table 2.1 lists the information gathered by the CIEH during the last
two occasions this survey was conducted. The survey results:
• do not differentiate between types of industrial process;
• do not specifically identify commercial kitchens; and
• relate to all complaints received and not only ‘justified’ complaints.
It is anticipated that odour problems associated with commercial kitchens will form only
a small proportion of the complaints received but will form a significant proportion of the
‘premises subject to complaint’.
Table 2.1 Results of CIEH survey of odour complaints attributed to industrial
processes
15
1998/1999 1999/2000
Complaints received 8,970 10,135
Complaints per million population 339 358
Premises subject to complaint 3,951 5,243
Notices served 80 61
Prosecutions 0 5
Convictions 0 5
2.1.2 What is odour?
Odour is perceived by our brains in response to chemicals present in the air we breathe.
Odour is the effect that those chemicals have upon us. Humans have sensitive senses
of smell and they can detect odour even when chemicals are present in very low
concentrations.
Most odours are a mixture of many chemicals that interact to produce what we detect as
an odour. Odour-free air contains no odorous chemicals whilst fresh air is usually
perceived as being air that contains no chemicals or contaminants that could cause