Abstract
In recent years, Europe has increased rapidly the use of concrete railway sleepers, however wooden sleepers are still used, mainly for technical reasons (eg. low sensitivity to temperature fluctuations), as well as economic (eg. costs of removal of very large number of sleepers). Wood used in the construction of the railway tracks is exposed during use on changing weather conditions, including temperature, humidity, UV light, as well as biological agents. Effect of these factors has a devastating impact on raw wood. Therefore, impregnating of wood material by suitable chemical compounds is carried out. The main goal is to maintain, protect it against destructive factors, eradicate biological corrosion, and to provide specific useful properties - for example, hydrophobic or increasing the biological resilience. For impregnating organic agents include, among others, carbolineum, dinitrophenol, sodium dinitrophenolan, pentachlorophenol, sodium pentachlorophenolate, naphthenates of copper, chloroacetamide and creosote. The last of these is the best known organic agent used to impregnate wooden railway sleepers (95% wooden railway sleepers impregnated in 2010.). Widespread use of creosote as a wood preservative creates the need to verify the current position on the impact of those compound on humans and the environment, especially considering its odor nuisance.
In the paper, the outline of the issues of wooden sleepers saturation with creosote oil was presented, with particular emphasis on the impact of the impregnation on the environment, including odors. For the purpose of illustrate the problem, there were presented the results of olfactometric analysis of two objects (technical- holding stations), where the creosote oil is used for sleepers impregnation. In addition, article contains the case of social conflict caused by the impact of one of these objects on the residential area. Tests were made using two types of field olfactometers - Nasal Ranger and Scentroid SM-100. Olfactometric analysis was accompanied by control of the current meteorological situation. On the basis of the research, identified the main sources of odor nuisance were identified and the range of influence of analyzed objects was designated. Further, in this article was compared the efficiency of use of two cited devices to olfactory impact assessment of railway sleepers.
