Nose for trouble: Italian town seeks ‘odour evaluators’ to sniff out bad smells | Italy
An Italian town is looking for a sniffing team to detect bad odors in its quest to improve air quality.
Bruno Beltrame, mayor of Brendola, a small town in the northern province of Vicenza, said he launched a recruitment drive for six “odor assessors” after complaints about “unpleasant odors” from people living in neighborhoods close to industrial areas.
The main prerequisite for the role is not to suffer from respiratory diseases such as allergies or asthma. Candidates must have a car and a smartphone that will be used to record scent data in a special app.
Led by a firm that specializes in odor measurement, participants will be trained on how to distinguish odors emitted from factories or from industrial waste or sewage, for example.
They will then be tasked with going to targeted areas to conduct sensory assessments. If an unpleasant odor is detected, they will spend time smelling the air before recording their perception on the app.
The ultimate goal of the initiative, which is expected to last six months, is to trace the origins of the smells.
“We did a similar study about five years ago in an industrial area near where the bad odors were coming from,” Beltrame said. “With this, we were able to identify companies emitting odors. Now we are expanding the geographical scope to find out whether the same companies continue to emit bad odors or whether they continue to emit different odors.”
Vicenza is located within the Po valley, a huge geographical area located between Piedmont, Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna, as well as the surrounding provinces of the Veneto region. The Po Valley is among the worst regions in Europe for air pollution.
“We’re at the end of the valley just before the alpine foothills,” Beltrame said. “So this is a huge undertaking because these areas are among the most productive, but they are also the areas that are at risk of creating pollution.”
He said various initiatives across the province are constantly working to improve air and water quality. “We have a lot of protocols and if businesses violate the rules they face heavy fines.”
Brendola is home to approximately 4,000 people who have become more determined to protect their environment over the years. Beltrame said: “While they may have been a little careless before, today they are more inclined to improve their quality of life and the environment. So when they see abandoned waste or smell bad air, they report it. We are happy because it allows us to intervene immediately to prevent potentially worse disasters.”
Beltrame said the local government initially advertised for paid jobs before Christmas but there were no takers, “perhaps because it was published so close to the holidays a lot of people may have turned their noses up.”
But since the ad was republished on Facebook this week, about a dozen people have applied. “They were mostly college students with a few hours to spare for their studies, and they seemed very enthusiastic.”
