EFFICACY OF VOLATILE ORGANIC-COMPOUNDS IN EVOKING NASAL PUNGENCY AND ODOR

Sensory irritation (pungency) figures prominently among the symptoms a ssociated with polluted indoor environments. In order to separate the pungent from the olfactory response, we measured nasal pungency thresh olds in subjects lacking olfaction (anosmics) and odor thresholds in n ormal controls (normosmics) for a homologous series of ketones and for selected secondary and tertiary alcohols and acetates. As seen pervio usly for homologous alcohols and acetates, both types of nasal thresho lds decreased with increasing carbon chain length. Pungency thresholds decreased exponentially with chain length. With respect to all nonrea ctive chemicals studied so far, threshold nasal pungency is achieved a t a fairly constant percentage of vapor saturation, irrespective of mo lecular size or chemical functional group. Such a relationship does no t hold for odor thresholds. The outcome for pungency implies an import ant role for a physical, rather than chemical, interaction with nasal mucosa.