Cooking Particulate Matter: A Systematic Review on Nanoparticle Exposure in the Indoor Cooking Environment

Abstract

Background: Cooking and fuel combustion in the indoor environment are major sources of respirable suspended particulate matter (RSPM), which is an excellent carrier of potentially harmful absorbed inorganic and organic compounds. Chronic exposure to RSPM can lead to acute pulmonary illness, asthma, cardiovascular disease, and lung cancer in people involved in cooking. Despite this, questions remain about the harmfulness of different particulate matter (PM) sources generated during cooking, and the factors influencing PM physico-chemical properties. The most reliable methods for sampling and analyzing cooking emissions remain only partially understood. Objectives: This review aims to comprehensively assess the risks of PM generated during cooking, considering the main sources of PM, PM chemical composition, and strategies for PM physico-chemical analysis. We present the first systematic analysis of PM sources and chemical composition related to cooking. We highlight significant differences between studies using different experimental conditions, with a lack of a standard methodology. Methods: Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement rules and the Patient, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome (PICO) strategy for scientific research, three different scientific databases (PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science) were screened to find scientific articles that measure, collect, and analyze the chemical composition of nanometer- and micrometer-sized PM generated during cooking activities under different conditions. Data are summarized to assess risk, evaluating the main sources and factors influencing PM generation, their chemical composition, and how they have been collected and analyzed in changing experimental conditions. Results: From 2474 search results, there were 55 studies that met our criteria. Overall, the main variable sources of PM in cooking activities relate to the stove and fuel type. The concentration and chemical–physical properties of PM are also strongly influenced by the food and food additive type, food processing type, cooking duration, temperature, and utensils. The most important factor influencing indoor PM concentration is ventilation. The PM generated during cooking activities is composed mainly of elemental carbon (EC) and its derivatives, and the porous structure of PM with high surface-to-volume ratio is a perfect carrier of inorganic and organic matter. Conclusions: This review reveals a growing interest in PM exposure during cooking activities and highlights significant variability in the chemical–physical properties of particles, and thus variable exposure risks. Precise risk characterization improves possible preventive strategies to reduce the risk of indoor pollutant exposure. However, comprehensive PM analysis needs proper sampling and analysis methods which consider all factors influencing the physico-chemical properties of PM in an additive and synergistic way. Our analysis highlights the need for method standardization in PM environmental analyses, to ensure accuracy and allow deeper comparisons between future studies.

Accidents at Work: A Meta-Analysis to Improve Risk Assessment and Health Surveillance

“…However, as these events are related to ergonomic factors, it is indeed important to emphasize the distinction between correct behavior and unintentional error; such conditions can also occur, for example, due to an imbalance between the progress of mechanization and the operator's understanding of procedures; This can lead to the well-known error categories according to Rasmussen, i.e., errors due to practical oversights carried out in a way that is different from what was planned (slip), environmental distractions that occur when a task is frequently performed but is not due to habit, errors due to established habit or memory (lapse), failure in the judgment process of planning the action (rule-based mistakes) due to correct identification of the situation but the incorrect application of the rule, errors related to incomplete or incorrect knowledge and incorrect assessment of the situation (knowledge-based mistakes) [28].…”

The prevalence and association of measured and perceived indoor air quality, housing characteristics, and residents’ behavior and health

“…They suggest that personal exposure should be measured instead in order to obtain true exposure and effect of emissions from cooking and usage of range hood while cooking (72). Further, it might have been appropriate to have measured volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carbon monoxide and particulate matter (PM), as previous research has shown elevated levels of VOCs and PM due to cooking, use of ventilation (i.e., a range hood) (73), smoking indoors (74), and burning candles (75).…”

Activity Prediction Based on Deep Learning Techniques

“…Among the test scenarios, activities associated with indoor-like environments, such as "Staying inside work place", "Visiting other commercial place", and "visiting restaurants, cafe" showed higher ratios compared to those of outdoor-like environments, except "Home-BBQ" and "Pan-Frying". In general, activities such as indoor cooking are the main cause of household air pollution and a leading environmental risk factor [35]. Sometimes, the PM2.5 concentration level of the cooking activities has a spiky distribution, resembling outliers, which could explain the corresponding lower accuracy in cooking activities.…”