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Cooking Sunday Roast Causes Indoor Pollution 'Worse Than Delhi' (theguardian.com)
pgmrdlm writes: Cooking a Sunday roast can drive indoor air pollution far above the levels found in the most polluted cities on Earth, scientists have said. Researchers found that roasting meat and vegetables, and using a gas hob, released a surge of fine particles that could make household air dirtier than that in Delhi. Fine soot and tiny organic particles from gas flames, vegetables, oils and fat combined to send harmful PM2.5 particulates in the house to levels 13 times higher than those measured in the air in central London. Peak indoor pollution lasted for about an hour.
"We were all surprised at the overall levels of particulate matter in the house," said Marina Vance, who led the research at the University of Colorado in Boulder. She advised people to open windows and use extractor hoods if possible to ventilate the home while cooking. PM2.5s are particles that are smaller than 2.5 micrometres across. They are small enough to be inhaled deep into the lungs where they exacerbate respiratory disorders and cardiovascular disease. Smaller particles can spread from the lungs into the bloodstream where they build up in the liver, heart and even the brain, where they may contribute to depression and other mental health issues.
"We were all surprised at the overall levels of particulate matter in the house," said Marina Vance, who led the research at the University of Colorado in Boulder. She advised people to open windows and use extractor hoods if possible to ventilate the home while cooking. PM2.5s are particles that are smaller than 2.5 micrometres across. They are small enough to be inhaled deep into the lungs where they exacerbate respiratory disorders and cardiovascular disease. Smaller particles can spread from the lungs into the bloodstream where they build up in the liver, heart and even the brain, where they may contribute to depression and other mental health issues.
Roasting meat and vegetables are in NO WAY similar to Asian Smog!
For one, that's what ventilation is for. And I mean both the active one you have above the stove if you have half a brain and the opened windows after cooking is done.
In Delhi they breathe that 24/7. Doubt that is the same as breathing it for a few hours.
...it's steam! Steam from the steamed clams we're having! Mmm... steamed clams!
It smells so good!
I guess we should all be using gas masks while cooking from now on....
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
I'd be living there already :-)
Buy even -more- toxic pre-packaged, microwaveable food to protect yourself from the toxins of cooking at home!
You do know that we have tiny hairs in our lungs that clean out particulates? Sure you can overwhelm them but I doubt a Sunday roast will do it.
love is just extroverted narcissism
The Guardian upholds their reputation as an utterly fucking useless online tabloid.
Who gives a shit. More hypochondriac bullshit from the letâ(TM)s worry about every irrelevant thing possible âoeWe are all going to die!â freaks.
Maybe everyone who works at a restaurant can sue their employer.
It's not like we're from caves with constant open fires with meat roasting since the dawn of man or any... oh, wait... oops.
I'm sure it is plausible that at the PEAK there are more particles matching a SPECIFIC metric than Delhi's AVERAGE, but who the hell cares? Unless you're doing things very wrong, your roasted dinner is going to exceed these levels for maybe a few hours, whereas in a major city on a bad day it will be bad for many dozens of hours, or even for days or weeks, and will be bad on a wide variety of measures.
We've built this system of demand for "information", and the infrastructure works to fill that demand, no matter how trivial the information is, resulting in a confusing continuum from important stuff to trivial stuff to downright stupid stuff. Honestly, what we need is to add computer algorithms which STOP exposing us to stupid useless stories, to reduce the overall demand.
Seriously... I'm racking my brain trying to figure out if I've ever heard the word "hob" and imagine what a gas variant might be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
#DeleteFacebook
All this tells me is that air pollution is obviously not nearly as big a deal as we thought.
Those who live have 100% higher chance of death anytime during their lives.
If you can, stay dead.
How about cooking a Sunday roast in Delhi ?
Sunday Roast for an hour once every couple weeks - how much do you think that will take down your life expectancy? Being so stressed that you worry about something as petty as breathing air from a Sunday Roast for an hour once every couple weeks - that will put you in an early grave.
if you've got a nice kitchen then your vents and fans work.
But yeah, I live in a cheap apartment and cook my own meals and when I do the whole place stinks. If the weather's OK I'll open windows and doors but half the time I don't want to let the heat out or in (depending on the time of year).
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While gas flames and charred food churned out fine soot particles
Solution: use an electric oven. The rest of the particulates probably amount to a couple of dense farts.
I googled "gas hob", because I had no idea what that meant. Apparently it's just a gas stove.
But I came across this weird climate alarmist idea to ban gas stoves because it was "bad for the environment". These environmental wacko's better be careful. Real cooks love gas, and despise electric. They can take my gas stove from my cold, dead hands!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/21/end-gas-hob-government-advisers-say-new-homes-should-gas-grid/
Is this fake news? Because it seems like fake news.
Isn't this intuitively obvious?
Whenever I cook a Sunday Roast, it affects the air I breath inside my home greatly. There's almost nothing that happens in Delhi that has any impact on the air inside my home.
In the land of the free, good ventilation hoods are code requirements over gas stoves. Carbon monoxide is a thing.
Duh!
I always wondered why I always pass out for 2 hours on the couch after that Sunday roast. Must be all of the pollution in the air. ;)
Cook the roast on Saturday
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Real cooks love gas, and despise electric.
Unless it is electric induction tops, which are even better than gas!
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
"Smoke detector? I thought it was an oven timer!"
Sundays are for families and families have Sunday roasts.
The Guardian is trying to destroy the family.
using a gas hob
I think you've got far greater problems than some lousy PM2.5 particles.
Have gnu, will travel.
This study brought to you in part by the raw food movement.
Good thing I do my roast on Saturday.
Considering one of their recommendations was to use an oven hood
A better recommendation would be to actually use an oven and not a hob. I don't even know how you can roast something like a chicken properly on the hob and I'd not be surprised if you end up burning some part of it releasing lots of pollution since a hob only heats the bottom.
I have serious doubts about this study too but to be fair though cavemen from the palaeolithic had a life expectancy of 33 years so while I doubt this was due to air pollution, other things killed them off so rapidly that if there were any effect from air pollution we would not notice.
I had a housemate burn pinto beans with habaneros in them... it's a pretty effective form of tear gas!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
...this sort of clickbaity "look at how Science(tm) proves something terrible that everyone doesn't think is terrible but is! Sky is falling, news at 11!" is exactly why (sane) people no longer give a shit about these sorts of articles.
I stopped listening largely around the what, 4th? 5th reversal on whether eggs were good or bad for you in my lifetime, maybe around 1990.
-Styopa
Where I live people mainly have electric ovens. Is this different for electric?
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Oh, I see. So the comforting smells of food cooking is now a no-no, is that it? No wonder so many people are depressed: "Everything that makes you feel comfy and safe is BAD FOR YOU AND WILL KILL YOU!". What's next? The smell of fresh bread baking gives you heart disease? How fucking depressing.
Who on earth roasts meat or vegetables using a gas hob?! Roasting pretty much means cooking in the oven, not on the hob (burners in America).
It's not the stove (that includes the lower part), it's the specifically the round bits on top that heat up a pan. Cooktop.
It's not unusual to have a range ("stove") with electric ovens and gas hobs.
All that "smog" is what normal people call the delicious and tantalizing smell of a roast for dinner. Good luck trying to get anyone alarmed about this.
And seriously, lots of commenters here are talking about clearing the "fumes" with a range hood. I'm not gonna do that, are you? Range hoods are good for lots of things but to whisk the aroma of a good meal out of the kitchen? On what planet is that a good idea? Shall we also insist that the diners wear clothespins on their noses, so as to prevent the "epidemic of meal enjoyment"?
Did you also know that eating involves the unconstrained smearing of food all over plates, thus opening the door for vermin, bacterial contamination, fungal growth, and the dog jumping on the table??? OMG!
OH....for f*ck sakes, let me do my roast, my barbecue or whatever the burning carbon hell I want in my house. To the darkness with these useless studies. Life is short. You will die anyway! You prefer to die with 85 or 90? Duck off!
That's why you should deep fry everything. Sunday roasts, vegetebles, twinkies, butter... deep fry everything.
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It smells so good it's worth it.
Why not just substitute the Guardian for Slashdot since on-topic "news for nerds" is apparently too much work to find and post?
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
.... stay out of the kitchen.
Although this article seems to be more about making an impact than providing level-headed information.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
In California, Prop 65 warns you against all kinds of evils, including toast and prune juice (both known to the State of California to cause cancer)... I kid you not.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Really? I've designed HVAC and plumbing for a lot of kitchens over the last 38 years, and I've never seen or heard about one.
How do you "roast" on a "gas job"?
I roast meat IN an oven, not ON a gas cooktop (hob).
Ken
They are amazing if you have a serious cook in the house.
Google for "dual fuel range"
What is a gas hob? Not familiar with that term in the States. A gas stove top burner?
On the rare occasion I roast something indoors, I have at least my kitchen window open and usually my sliding door. At least I learned a new term, "gas hob." In other words, a gas burner.
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
Well godammit! If the fucking expert ain't seen it, then it doesn't exist! Everyone's just a lyin troll, amirite?
Ok, so if Sunday is no good, what day is recommended? I usually roast chicken on a Saturday and freeze enough for a month or so. Does this mean I'm safe, since the article specified sunday?
Last week I roasted chicken on a tuesday. It would be interesting to know if it's just sunday that needs to be avoided or the entire weekend.
Or was the article written by a moron? It seems likely, but I hate to assume such things.
I mean, really, why is this getting airtime?