Indoor air quality in a restaurant kitchen using margarine for deep-frying

Abstract

Indoor air quality has a great impact on human health. Cooking, in particular frying, is one of the most important sources of indoor air pollution. Indoor air CO, CO 2 , particulate matter (PM), and volatile organic compound (VOC) concentrations, including aldehydes, were measured in the kitchen of a small establishment where a special deepfrying margarine was used. The objective was to assess occupational exposure concentrations for cooks of such restaurants. While individual VOC and PM 2.5 concentrations were measured before, during, and after frying events using active sampling, TVOC, PM 10 , CO, CO 2 , temperature, and relative humidity were continuously monitored through the whole period. VOC and aldehyde concentrations did not increase to considerable levels with deep-frying compared to the background and public indoor environment levels, whereas PM 10 increased significantly (1.85 to 6.6 folds). The average PM 2.5 concentration of the whole period ranged between 76 and 249 μg/m 3 . Hence, considerable PM exposures could occur during deep-frying with the special margarine, which might be sufficiently high to cause health effects on cooks considering their chronic occupational exposures.

Exposure to Cooking Fumes and Acute Reversible Decrement in Lung Functional Capacity

“…In addition, the concentrations of suspended particulates and TVOCs were measured in official building as control levels. 21…”

Review of Effluents and Health Effects of Cooking and the Performance of Kitchen Ventilation

“…In three residence measurements conducted by Zhang et al (2010), it was also found that, during boiling, lower UFPs concentrations were observed, while the UFPs levels were higher during frying. Many researches have reported similar results (Rogge et al, 1991;Buonanno et al, 2010;Taner et al, 2013;Sofuoglu et al, 2015). A summary of the particle concentrations generated from different cooking methods are presented in Table 5.…”

Cooking behaviors are related to household particulate matter exposure in children with asthma in the urban East Bay Area of Northern California

“…Regarding cooking exposures, an analysis of NHANES data has shown that children whose parents report using ventilation while cooking with gas stoves are less likely to be diagnosed with asthma than children whose parents do not ventilate their gas stoves. {Kile:2014fd} Certain types of cooking, particularly frying, [ 15 ] are known to create large amounts of particulate matter. Thus, encouraging minimal use of frying could have respiratory benefit as well as dietary benefits for the household.…”

“…A recently published report of measured PM 2.5 in 13 residences in Seoul demonstrated differences depending on the type of ventilation used during a cooking task [ 13 ]. A few studies of cooking exposures in restaurants also have shown markedly elevated PM levels associated with particular types of cooking (especially frying)[ 14 , 15 ] and have even shown associations between airborne particles from cooking and inflammatory markers in exposed people[ 16 , 17 ]. In addition, recent work has demonstrated that some of the airborne particles produced from cooking can result from fuel combustion (gas) [ 18 ] as well as from organic material that is adsorbed to the cooking surfaces even in the absence of fuels which produce particles when combusted (such as electric stoves).…”