Olf (unit) explained

The olf is a unit used to measure the strength of a pollution source. It was introduced by Danish professor P. Ole Fanger; the name "olf" is derived from the Latin word, meaning "smelled".^[1]

One olf is the sensory pollution strength from a standard person defined as an average adult working in an office or similar non-industrial workplace, sedentary and in thermal comfort, with a hygienic standard equivalent of 0.7 baths per day and whose skin has a total area of 1.8 square metres. It was defined to quantify the strength of pollution sources that can be perceived by humans.

The perceived air quality is measured in decipol.^[1]

Examples of typical scent emissions

Person/object	Scent emission
Sitting person	1 olf
Smoker	25 olf
Athlete	30 olf
Marble	0.01 olf/m²
Linoleum	0.2 olf/m²
Synthetic fibre	0.4 olf/m²
Rubber gasket	0.6 olf/m²

See also

• Sick building syndrome

References

• Professor Ole Fanger's page at the Technical University of Denmark, includes curriculum vitae mentioning him proposing the unit called olf.

Notes and References

1. Fanger, P. O. (1987). "Introduction of the olf and the decipol Units to Quantify Air Pollution Perceived by Humans Indoors and Outdoors" (PDF). In Energy and Buildings 12 (1), pp. 1–6.