Although the "skunky" odor characteristic of cannabis has been widely referenced, its cause has been historically misassigned to unspecified "skunky terpenes". Recent reports from two independent research groups, the Koziel team (March and April 2021) and Oswald team (August and November 2021), have corrected this misassignment by linking the "skunky" character of industrial hemp and cannabis to 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol (321MBT). A recent USPTO patent application review clearly indicated that the Oswald team should take full credit for the discovery of this link with respect to cannabis. However, the August 19, 2021 publication of their patent application appears to be their formal public disclosure of 321MBT as the primary source odorant which is responsible for the targeted "skunky" odor. This date is well after the March and April 2021 public disclosures by the Koziel team for the 321MBT/"skunky" odor link relative to both cannabis and industrial hemp. This Viewpoint summarizes the investigative strategy leading to the public disclosure of this historically elusive link. It is presented from the perspective of the rapid multidimensional-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-olfactometry (i.e., MDGC-MS-O) based odorant-prioritization "screening" approach, as applied by the Koziel team.

Solving environmental odor issues can be confounded by many analytical, technological, and socioeconomic factors. Considerable know-how and technologies can fail to properly identify odorants responsible for the downwind nuisance odor and, thereby, focus on odor mitigation strategies. We propose enabling solutions to environmental odor issues utilizing troubleshooting techniques developed for the food, beverage, and consumer products industries. Our research has shown that the odorant impact-priority ranking process can be definable and relatively simple. The initial challenge is the prioritization of environmental odor character from the perspective of the impacted citizenry downwind. In this research, we utilize a natural model from the animal world to illustrate the rolling unmasking effect (RUE) and discuss it more systematically in the context of the proposed environmental odorant prioritization process. Regardless of the size and reach of an odor source, a simplification of odor character and composition typically develops with increasing dilution downwind. An extreme odor simplification-upon-dilution was demonstrated for the prehensile-tailed porcupine (P.T. porcupine); its downwind odor frontal boundary was dominated by a pair of extremely potent character-defining odorants: (1) ‘onion’/‘body odor’ and (2) ‘onion’/‘grilled’ odorants. In contrast with the outer-boundary simplicity, the near-source assessment presented considerable compositional complexity and composite odor character difference. The ultimate significance of the proposed RUE approach is the illustration of naturally occurring phenomena that explain why some environmental odors and their sources can be challenging to identify and mitigate using an analytical-only approach (focused on compound identities and concentrations). These approaches rarely move beyond comprehensive lists of volatile compounds emitted by the source. The novelty proposed herein lies in identification of those few compounds responsible for the downwind odor impacts and requiring mitigation focus.

A critical prelude to any community odor assessment should be the prioritization of specific chemical odorants that are most responsible for targeted downwind odors. Unfortunately, and historically, this is a step that has often been bypassed or overlooked. However, correct understanding of the specific impactful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can inform the follow-on sampling, analytical, and remediation strategies that are most appropriate and efficient, based upon the chemistry behind the issue. With this understanding, the techniques and sampling strategies presented herein should be viewed as a qualitative prelude rather than an addendum to a follow-up routine, automated downwind odor monitoring. Downwind odor characteristics can vary depending upon the size of the upwind source, interim topography, and wind conditions. At one extreme, the downwind odor plume from a relatively large source located on a flat open plain and under stable, near-straight line wind conditions can be rather broad, sustained, and predictable. In contrast, the plume from a small point source (e.g., a roof vent stack) located on irregular topography and under rapidly shifting wind conditions can be intermittent and fleeting ("spikes" or "bursts"). These transient odor events can be surprisingly intense and offensive, despite their fleeting occurrence and perception. This work reports on improving and optimizing an environmental sampling strategy for odorant prioritization from such transient downwind odor conditions. This optimization addresses the challenges of (1) sampling of transient odor "spikes" and (2) prioritizing odors/odorants from multiple, closely colocated point sources under transient event conditions. Prioritizing is defined as identifying the key impactful odorants downwind. Grab air sampling protocol refinement has emerged from actual community environmental odor assessment projects. The challenge of assessing transient odor events has been mitigated by utilizing (a) rapid, odor-cued whole-air grab sampling (i.e., activated by and synchronous with the perceived sensory spikes) into metalized fluorinated ethylene polymer (m-FEP) gas sampling bags; (b) immediate transfer from bags onto solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fibers or sorbent tubes; and (c) maintaining refrigerated storage and shipment conditions between field collection and in-laboratory analysis. Results demonstrated approximately 11-fold increases in target odorant yields for 900 mL air sample capture on sorbent tube transfers from 2 to 3 s "burst" odor event bag captures compared to equivalent direct collections (with sorbent tubes) at the same downwind receptor location but during perceived (stable) odor "lull" periods. An application targeting general odor sampling and point-source differentiation utilizing tracer gases is also presented.