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Cooking Sunday Roast Causes Indoor Pollution 'Worse Than Delhi' (theguardian.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-about-that dept.

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.

18 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. Is calling BS on this! by Zorro · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Roasting meat and vegetables are in NO WAY similar to Asian Smog!

    1. Re:Is calling BS on this! by ranton · · Score: 4, Informative

      Considering one of their recommendations was to use an oven hood (no duh!), I wonder if they did everything possible to make the air quality plummet. If I roasted a turkey, let some fat drop onto the bottom of the oven, kept all the windows closed, and didn't use the oven hood, the air in home would be very unpleasant.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    2. Re:Is calling BS on this! by timeOday · · Score: 2

      I wonder if commercial kitchens have any air quality standards. Those people are in there all day.

    3. Re:Is calling BS on this! by PPH · · Score: 4, Funny

      a liberal in Boulder

      Well, it's got me so worried about my health that I've got to smoke a couple of bowls of weed to mellow out.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    4. Re:Is calling BS on this! by reboot246 · · Score: 2

      There's no way to compare the two. You'll never smell the delicious smell of roasting beef in Delhi.

      I KNOW the particulate levels rise when I'm cooking. I like those particulates!! Maybe those vegan researchers in Colorado don't, but fuck them.

      I hope no tax money went towards this "research".

    5. Re:Is calling BS on this! by vux984 · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's actually pretty well documented that the air quality from cooking can get to surprisingly bad levels quickly.

      The range hoods in a lot of kitches are often only minimally up to code, too far from the cooking surface, and dirty, attached to ductwork that is too long with too many corners to deliver anything close to the rated air movement. And many homeowners don't think to even turn them on unless the cooking is active smoking.

      An decent spec range hood, installed correctly, that is clean and not hobbled by inadequate ductwork is all you need. But it is shocking how rare this is.

      As it happens, my current place, had been upgraded to a nice gas stove with no real thought to the range hood. The range hood is a cheap builders 280 CFM unit with around 25 feet of 5" diameter horizontal pipe with at least 3 90 degree turns. It also leaks air where it connects to the duct; so a good fraction of the air it sucks in is just blowing back into the kitchen

      The range hood should be at least 400CFM for the gas stove that's installed. But due to the duct work, will need to be even higher. And it should be turned on to at least low even when just boiling water for tea.

      If we roasted a turkey and let some fat drop; and have current fan on max, all the windows and doors open, the bathroom fans going, and all the ceiling fans going... we'd still set off the smoke detector.

      We're in the process of getting it replaced.

      Here's a couple article from 2013... this is not "new".

      http://articles.latimes.com/20...
      https://www.npr.org/sections/t...

    6. Re:Is calling BS on this! by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They are cooking with gas. I bet electric ovens/cooktops don't put out exhaust from burning fossil fuels.... Notice they didn't even bother to compare to an electric setup - an article like this absolutely needs to compare gas vs. electric otherwise WTF IS THE POINT?.

    7. Re:Is calling BS on this! by judoguy · · Score: 3, Informative

      I wonder if commercial kitchens have any air quality standards. Those people are in there all day.

      Indeed they do. Not just hoods but active replacement air expressly rated for the hoods.

      A friend of mine recently opened a restaurant and the inspector determined that the HVAC contractor had insufficiently sized the replacement air system for the range hoods. He wouldn't allow the restaurant to open until that was fixed.

      --
      Peace is easy to achieve, just surrender. Liberty is much harder get/keep.
    8. Re:Is calling BS on this! by vux984 · · Score: 2

      Good point. A lot of range hoods are recirculating; and many models can be configured to use either ductwork or to recirculate.

      If they recirculate they go through charcoal filters that should be replaced regularly. As you can imagine, many people with recirculating systems never replace the filters.

  2. Rolleyes... by Kokuyo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Rolleyes... by tsqr · · Score: 2

      In Delhi they breathe that 24/7. Doubt that is the same as breathing it for a few hours.

      The old "one cigarette isn't dangerous" fallacy?

      Of course, one cigarette is dangerous. It's just not as dangerous as two packs a day, just as cooking a roast is not as dangerous as breathing the air in Delhi 24x7.

  3. A caveman could do it! by sdinfoserv · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

  4. Quit making idiotic statements for coverage! by shess · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  5. Re:WTF is a gas hob? by bws111 · · Score: 4, Informative

    It is british English for 'cooktop'.

  6. Sunday roast coma by CodeInspired · · Score: 2

    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. ;)

  7. No comfy smells for you! by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

  8. More BS from the same group who pushed Prop 65 by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 2

    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!
  9. so what day is best? by Paul+Carver · · Score: 2

    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.