The IAQM Early Careers Network (ECN) provides a forum to learn, practice presentation skills and network with other early career professionals, in a friendly, supportive and accessible environment.

Join us for our upcoming webinar, where we’ll be focusing on the topic of odour assesments through a variety of short talks. Work is currently underway to update the IAQM’s ‘Guidance on the assessment of odour for planning’, and we’ll kick off this event by hearing an overview of this update. This will be followed by three odour assessment case studies from our ECN members. 

Updating the IAQM’s Guidance on the assessment of odour for planning
Laurence Caird, Technical Director at Air Quality Consultants Ltd and Co-Chair of the IAQM working group for updating this guidance 

This presentation will provide an overview of the IAQM’s recent work on updating their odour Guidance, which is due out in the near future.

The IAQM’s Odour Guidance was originally developed in 2014 to provide some specific odour assessment guidance for use in UK land use planning, as at the time the IAQM Committee and its members identified a gap in this area where existing UK guidance documents were tailored towards environmental regulation (e.g. Environment Agency H4, SEPA odour guidance, Local Authority odour guidance).The guidance was subject to a minor update in 2018, but then in 2023 after nearly 10 years in practical application, it was decided by the IAQM to look at a further update informed by practitioner’s experience of using the guidance. Following an initial working group meeting it was identified there was a need for some adjustments in three key areas; sniff testing methodology, guidance in relation to source-pathway-receptor assessments, and the relevance of including case law/planning appeal examples in the guidance.

Early Career Network Case Studies

Qualitative Odour Assessment Techniques and the Public Inquiry Process 
Arlishia Scarpa, Environmental Scientist – Air Quality, Wardell Armstrong LLP

The presentation will focus on multi-tool assessment techniques utilised in qualitative odour assessments, to identify potential odour impacts associated with fugitive odour emissions. The presentation will draw upon two fascinating case studies, recently undertaken by Wardell Armstrong as part of the appeal process.

Highlighting the importance of olfactometry in odour measurement against chemical testing and chemical sensors
Patrick Harland, Air Quality Consultant, Air Quality Modelling, Air Quality & Environment, Ricardo

This presentation will use ongoing project work to highlight the potential failings and pitfalls of using chemical analysis or sensors to determine odour impact and how this can often not provide a full picture of the impact a site can have. This will aim to showcase the way in which sampling has allowed for a far more accurate image of the odour impact from a site. 

Case study for the proposed Guiness Brewery in Covent Garden
George Bratchel, Senior Consultant, Air Pollution Services

This presentation will cover Qualitative Odour Assessment of odours from the proposed Guiness microbrewery, bars and restaurants in Covent Garden, London. Mitigation measures will be discussed, including Odour ventilation strategies for kitchen, negative pressure effect on odours within the brewery and a bespoke scrubbing process being implemented in the brewery.

This event is open exclusively to IAQM Early Careers Network Members. It is free to attend and will take place online. 

Our Speakers

Laurence Caird, Technical Director at Air Quality Consultants Ltd
Laurence is a Technical Director at Air Quality Consultants Ltd with 18 years’ experience in the field of air quality, odour and climate change assessment and management. In the field of odours, Laurence has assessed the odour impacts related to a wide range of odour emissions sources including waste processes, wastewater treatment, intensive livestock farming, airports, industrial processes and commercial kitchens. Laurence was a member of the working group which developed the original IAQM odour guidance for planning in 2014 and contributed to the 2018 guidance update. He was also a member of the IAQM Committee from 2017 to 2019.

Additional speaker information will be published soon.