Thereis currently no legislation in Poland governing odour nuisance(odourlaw). Around half of all complaints on air pollution refer to odouremitted by livestock production operations (industrial swine / poultryfarms, fur farms, slaughter houses), which makes it clear that legalregulations governing this issue are missing.
Workson a legal draft started in 1990s. The Convention on Limiting Nuisancethrough Odours was adopted in 1997, but has never been implemented. InApril 2011, a third draft of the 'odour law' was put to publicconsultations. In May 2011, the Ministry of Environment adoptedassumptions to the draft law on combating nuisance from odours, whichestablished framework for further works on the draft law at theDepartment for Climate Change and Atmosphere Protection.
Apartfrom works on the draft law, works have continued on accommodating theexisting regulations on air quality in terms of odour. Under theEnvironmental Protection Law (Article 86), a facultative authorisationwas granted in 2001 to the Minister of Environment, who was authorisedto issue a resolution defining air quality standards in terms of odourand methods for air quality assessment (Clause 3-5), in cooperation withthe minister competent for health. This regulation should specificallydetermine the threshold air levels of odorants, maximum permittedfrequency of the occurrence of levels exceeding the odour thresholdvalues, diversification of permitted frequency of the occurrence oflevels exceeding the odour threshold values depending on land use andodour quality (neutral, pleasant, unpleasant), periods during whichodour threshold values are averaged, and the period of validity of airquality in terms of odour. In 2005, odour regulations were included inArticle 222 of the Act.
Insteadof an act on combating nuisance from odours, an implementing act wouldhave been sufficient to establish air quality standards in terms ofodours. The legislative procedure would be accelerated and simplified,and the new law would have been adopted a few years ago. Appropriatestandards and procedures can be based on the European Committee forStandardization, European Standard EN 13725:2003 - Air quality 'Determination of odour concentration by dynamic olfactometry (including amendment AC:2006) - PN-EN 13725:2007).