Odour regulation in Italy: the regional guidelines on odour emissions in Lombardia

In the region of Lombardia, a specific guideline about odour emissions is on the point of being issued. The proposed regulatory approach is conform to the guidelines of other countries, such as UK, Netherlands and France. All of them provide to fix limits to odour immissions, rather than to emissions. More in detail, these guidelines provide to simulate the odour concentration on the territory by dispersion modelling, and give limits expressed in terms of 98(th) percentile, on an yearly basis, of the peak odour concentration values. The regional guidelines about odour emissions of Lombardia represent an important tool for evaluating odour impact and therefore objectively respond to the question "is there an odour nuisance?". Moreover, the philosophy of limiting the odour impact directly at receptors and not at the emission source is surely more effective for the safeguard of the quality of the environment and of the citizens' well-being, and it could therefore be exported also to other pollutants.