Odor Thresholds

An excellent on-line source for retrieving odor thresholds for various substances is:

This is a PDF file that is 52 pages long. This is produced by 3M Corporation primarily as a guide for the use of their respirators. Pages 2-5 contain some useful definitions (IDLH, TLV, etc) and pages 10-46 contain an alphabetical list of compounds that shows: IDLH, Odor Threshold, TLV, synonyms and recommended respirator.

In the event that this site is inaccessible, I have also printed this document and placed it in the Academic Safety Library.

A very useful comment is copied below. This is from a web listserv about lab safety:

Caveat: published data, especially from authorities such as EPA and NIOSH, tends to acquire an aura of sanctity. I would urge everyone to remember that there are huge differences -- as in, a couple of orders of magnitude -- in the odor sensitivity between various persons. Some persons have practically no sense of smell. Published odor thresholds should be regarded as standard values in the middle of a very wide bell curve. Real-world correlation is low. This also accounts for the considerable divergence I have seen among various sources.

Another site list odor thresholds for substances dissolved in water, as ppb levels. This is a very different list than above, but perhaps more useful in some situations.

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