The study has as subject olfactory pollution and it aims to outline first that this type of pollution is far from being a mere discomfort that most sensitive people feel acutely, because unpleasant odours, miasmas, are proof of some chemical substances with harmful effects on the human body. Then, the article shows that while the number of public complaints is steadily increasing, the regulations – national, foreign, European – still have a timid and anaemic nature.
From the results of the researches it follows, first, that the olfactory pollution is related to the wider theme of air pollution, which as an essential element of life (and therefore to us people!) must meet a number of conditions expressed by: temperature, humidity, purity, chemical composition. These conditions must lie within the limits of tolerance of the human body and of existence of the fauna and flora; due to natural phenomena, as well as to human activities, in the modern society, air has undergone major changes materialized either in the change of concentration of some natural compounds or in the penetration of some elements unknown to this environment, radioactive substances, chemical substances resulting from human activities, the air thus becoming the „garbage dump” for all gas or gaseous wastes produced by the living. Therefore, we are talking about a polluted air, not just when it is manifested by the presence of substances other than the natural composition of the air, but also when their quantity makes it unsuitable for the fulfilment of its roles. Starting from here, for the specialists in different fields, the notion of „polluted air” will have different meanings; thus, for the physician, the air is polluted when the concentration of unknown substances reaches harmful levels for the human body, while for industrial technologist, concerned with corrosion, when the pollutants reach concentrations that alter the structure and operation of plants.
