Present Status of Odour Management in Malaysia

The nuisance odour complaints received by the Department of Environment of Malaysia in 2006 are about 1082 cases. The trend shows that odor problems have become more and more acute every year. The sources of odor complaints come from many types of industries such as animal raring industry, chemical industries, rubber processing industries, municipal solid wastes (MSW), sewage treatment plants, palm oil industries, petroleum industries and etc. There are no specific odour control technology to solve the odour problem in the country. Some of the odour problems became more acute because the sources odour are located in places which are in the living area because lack of space. At the same time, there is no regulation concerning the specific odor parameter stated in the Environment Quality Acts 1974. The Department of Environment had drafted a regulation in order to monitor this problem, relating to the nuisance coming from these industries but until now the regulation still pending. The aim of this paper is to describe the present status of odour problem in Malaysia and the public exception of this problem. (author)