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Cooking on a gas stove can emit more nanometer-sized particles into the air than vehicles that run on gasoline or diesel, according to a new study.
It’s possible that could increase the risk of developing asthma or other respiratory diseases, the researchers report.
“Combustion remains a source of air pollution around the world, both indoors and outdoors. We found that cooking on a gas stove produces large amounts of small nanoparticles that enter the respiratory system and deposit efficiently,” says Brandon Boor, associate professor at Purdue University’s Lyles School of Civil Engineering, who led this research.
Based on these findings, the researchers recommend turning on a kitchen exhaust fan while cooking on a gas stove.
The study, published in the journal PNAS Nexusfocused on small airborne nanoparticles that are only 1 to 3 nanometers in diameter, which is just the right size to reach certain parts of the respiratory system and spread to other organs.
“You wouldn’t use the exhaust pipe of a diesel engine as an air supply to your kitchen.”
Recent studies have found that children who live in homes with gas stoves are more likely to develop asthma. But not much is known about how particles smaller than 3 nanometers, called aerosol nanoclusters, grow and spread indoors because they are very difficult to measure.
“These super tiny nanoparticles are so small that you can’t see them. They are not like dust particles that you see floating in the air,” says Boor. “After observing such high concentrations of nanocluster aerosols during gas cooking, we can no longer ignore these nanosized particles.”
Using state-of-the-art air quality instruments provided by German company Grimm Aerosol Technik, researchers were able to measure these tiny particles down to a single nanometer while cooking on a gas stove in a “tiny house” laboratory. They collaborated with Gerhard Steiner, senior scientist and product manager for nanomeasurement at Grimm Aerosol.
He called the Purdue Zero Energy Design Guidance for Engineers (zEDGE) Lab, the tiny house has all the features of a typical home but is equipped with sensors to closely monitor the impact of everyday activities on a home’s air quality. Using this test environment and Grimm Aerosol’s instrument, a High-Resolution Particle Size Magnifier (PSMPS), the team collected a large amount of data on indoor nanocluster aerosol particles during realistic cooking experiments.
This magnitude of high-quality data allowed the researchers to compare their findings to known levels of outdoor air pollution, which are more regulated and understood than indoor air pollution.
They found that up to 10 trillion nanocluster aerosol particles could be emitted per kilogram of cooking fuel, equaling or exceeding those produced by vehicles with internal combustion engines.
This would mean that adults and children could breathe in 10 to 100 times more aerosols from nanoclusters when cooking on a gas stove indoors than they would breathe in car exhaust while standing on a busy street.
“You wouldn’t use the exhaust pipe of a diesel engine as an air supply to your kitchen,” says Nusrat Jung, an assistant professor of civil engineering who designed the small home lab with her students and is co-senior author of the study.
Purdue civil engineering doctoral student Satya Patra made these findings by looking at data collected in the small in-house lab and modeling the various ways nanocluster aerosol could transform indoors and deposit in a person’s respiratory system. .
The models showed that the nanocluster aerosol particles are very persistent in their journey from the gas stove to the rest of the house. Trillions of these particles were emitted in just 20 minutes after boiling water or making grilled cheese sandwiches or buttermilk pancakes on a gas stove.
Although many particles diffused quickly to other surfaces, models indicated that approximately 10 billion to 1 trillion particles could settle in the airways of an adult’s head and in the tracheobronchial region of the lungs. These doses would be even higher for children: the smaller the human being, the more concentrated the dose.
The nanocluster aerosol from the combustion of the gas could also easily mix with larger particles entering the air from butter, oil, or whatever else is cooking on the gas stove, resulting in new particles. with their own unique behaviors.
The exhaust fan of a gas stove would likely redirect these nanoparticles away from the respiratory system, but that remains to be tested.
“Since most people don’t turn on the exhaust fan while cooking, having kitchen hoods that activate automatically would be a logical solution,” says Boor. “Looking ahead, we need to think about how to reduce our exposure to all types of indoor air pollutants. “Based on our new data, we recommend that nanocluster aerosol be considered a distinct category of air pollutant.”
A National Science Foundation CAREER award to Boor supported the work. Additional financial support was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Chemistry of Indoor Environments program through an interdisciplinary collaboration with Philip Stevens, professor at Indiana University’s Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
Fountain: Purdue University