Chem. Senses 25: 395-400,
2000
© Oxford University Press 2000
A Controlled Short-term Exposure Study to Investigate the Odor Differences Among Three Different Formulations of Gasoline
1 Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute of Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 170 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854, 2 Joint PhD Program in Exposure Measurement and Assessment, Department of Environmental Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and The UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ and 3 Monell Chemical Senses Center, 3500 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3308, USA 4 Present address: Unilever Research USA, 45 River Road, Edgewater, NJ 07020, USA
Correspondence to be sent to: Nancy Fiedler, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Room 210, 170 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA. e-mail: nfiedler{at}eohsi.rutgers.edu
Control subjects (CON) and self-reported methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE)-sensitive subjects (SRS) were evaluated to distinguish between the following gasoline blends: gasoline versus gasoline + MTBE (15% MTBE v/v); and gasoline versus gasoline + MTBE + reodorant. The study also investigated the ability of a reodorant to conceal the odor of MTBE in a gasoline mixture. In each of two separate sessions, seven men (four CON, three SRS) and seven women (four CON, three SRS) were asked, in a forced-choice format, to sniff 28 randomized bottle pairs to determine if the odors in each pair were the same or different. Chi-square analyses revealed that, with the exception of one male CON, subjects were unable to distinguish between gasoline and gasoline with MTBE or gasoline with MTBE and the reodorant. Thus, a reodorant is of limited value as an additive which alters the ability of an individual to detect MTBE in a blended gasoline. The results suggest that at the level used in the experiment, no mask would be required to blind a participant from the odor of MTBE if that level is used in a controlled human health effects study of the additive.