Using representative members of each of three homologous series of chemicals—ketones, acetates and alcohols—v~’e measured nasal pungency thresholds in anosmics via two stimulus-delivery systems. The first system consists of the fairly commonly used 270 ml, plastic ‘squeeze bottles’. The second system consists of 1 900 ml, glass vessels with Teflon tubing ano nose-pieces. Although bulkier and more susceptible to mechanical breakage, the glass vessels possess advantages that can allow them to provide ‘environmentally realistic’ chemosensory thresholds, i.e. thresholds closer in absolute values to thcse that might be obtained under whole-body exposures. Such advantages include a larger volume of the vapor-source to accomodate whole sniffs, and a tight nose—nose-piece connection to avoid stimulus dilution. The outcome revealed ~h~t ?chemical, the glass vessels provided nasal pungency thresholds significantly lower than those provided by the sc ~ee:e:The difference amounted, on average, to a factor of 4.6, though the relative potency of the compounds ~e~’-a ‘e: :‘-ese ~‘- a under both systems. Additionally, when tested with the highest homologues used here, namely. oct. ace:a:e-anosmics using the glass vessels had little or no difficulty achieving the criterion for threshold ~v’ereas :‘e.-‘when using the squeeze bottles.
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