Published the new Directive 2024/2881 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe. There are no odours on it

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  Ten days ago, the European Parliament published the new Air Quality (AQ) Directive in the European Journal. This regulation applies to 32 countries under the European Environmental Agency (EEA) umbrella. Unfortunately, the odour is not even mentioned in this ambient air regulation. Therefore, European citizens and European industrial organizations are again left unprotected.

   Some months ago, we reviewed the draft proposal of this new European air regulation and we detailed the most relevant provisions for odour managers.  At that time, the question was whether this AQ Directive would incorporate any provisions regarding odour levels in ambient air. The recently published Directive (EU) 2024/2881 of 23 October 2024 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe does not.

   If you do a quick search with the word "odour," you will get deceptive 0 results for your query. The recent developments in Germany with their new odour levels in their AQ regulation have yet to reach the European Commission. So, for the time being in Europe, there will continue to be an uncapped odour exhaust policy without any controls beyond those established under the Industrial Emissions Directive.

   That said, however, some parts of the text deal with odorants, including sulphur dioxide (SO2), benzene, ammonia, and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

   Odour is not an issue in the air quality plans or roadmaps in the coming European Directive on Air Quality. It was actually expected after some initiatives on this matter were halted by the European Commission. The good news is that a large group of scientists are working on reversing the situation trough a challenging Cost Action coordinated by Mr. Jean-Michel Guillot. Still, we will have to wait till the next AQ revision that will be published hopefully in 2034.

 

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Carlos Nietzsche Diaz Jimenez's Avatar

Carlos Nietzsche Diaz Jimenez

Carlos is the editor-in-chief of Olores.org and has been part of the odour world since 2001. Over the years, he’s taken part in more than 100 conferences on odour management around the world, and has written several papers on the topic. He’s also helped organize international events and training courses. Carlos runs a small company called Ambiente et Odora (AEO). When he’s not working, he enjoys spending time with his wife and twins, Laura and Daniel—and, of course, writing for Olores.org.