4 ms·

> - Cooking is insanely bad for the air in your house Hold on! Not all particulates are equally harmful - and by far! A particulate sensor detects water vapor

> - Cooking is insanely bad for the air in your house Hold on! Not all particulates are equally harmful - and by far! A particulate sensor detects water vapor or particles of (non-burnt) cooking oil that are harmless to humans. In the same way, it detects very dangerous (carcinogenic) compounds from combustion engines or burning coal or wood. Cooking is in no way "insanely bad" (unless you are grilling your food black or cooking on an open wood/coal fire)

5e92cb50239222b 5y ago
It does not measure water vapor, at least not the one I'm using (PMS5003). I always have windows tightly shut because of the extreme pollution outside, so 100% humidity is easy to reach simply by mopping the floors (which stay wet for hours after). It does not change PM measurements one bit. Fry a couple of eggs though, and PM 2.5 quickly goes over 100 µg/m³. Burn a piece of meat just a little bit and see it rise over 300 µg/m³.
- eutectic 5y ago
  What about suspended water droplets?
crazygringo 5y ago
The thing that sends my PM2.5 skyrocketing the most is, interestingly, my toaster oven. Like from 50 to 1500 in the space of 10 min. No food needed within -- just the heating itself. I have no idea what the particles are though -- metal? Paint? Carbon from burnt residue? Or just whatever the heating element itself is made of? Separately, cooking with gas (oven+stove) also sends CO2 way way up -- in my kitchen, from 500 to 1300 or so within 20 minutes. And that's with my range hood on.
- thrashh 5y ago
  Dust in the toaster?
- sneak 5y ago
  A lot of range hoods don't actually exhaust outside, and just suck stovetop air over some steel wool to condense the grease particles somewhere other than your walls. Not saying that's the case here, but several times I thought the range fan was exhausting the air, only to learn upon examination that it was just shooting it back out into the same room.
  - klondike_klive 5y ago
    The last place I lived in - the cooker hood did exactly this, without even the steel wool. We noticed a growing stain on the ceiling and found out there was no outlet, no filter, just a fan blowing the greasy air onto the ceiling. This was a 1 bedroom apartment with one of the ubiquitous "kitchenette"s that are fitted these days, so that landlords don't lose a whole room to a kitchen that exhausted commuting professionals will never use. Our current place has a proper kitchen, but the cooker hood vents outside directly next to the central heating boiler's intake.
- goodpoint 5y ago
  Carbon from burnt residue, most likely, and that could be quite unhealthy. Clean the toaster!
  - crazygringo 5y ago
    Thing is you can't really deep-clean it... it's not particularly dirty, I keep the bottom free of crumbs etc., but when oil droplets from food collect against the back surface and polymerize there, what can you do...? You can't exactly throw the toaster oven in the sink and scrub the inside surfaces with steel wool and Barkeeper's Friend under running water like you can with pots and pans. Nor do toaster ovens have a "self-cleaning" cycle where you try to just vaporize it all... they simply don't get hot enough.
nyghtly 5y ago
You're leaving out the most important part: cooking with gas. "Natural gas and propane stoves can release carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and other harmful pollutants into the air, which can be toxic to people and pets." https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/documents/indoor-air-pollution-cooking https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/documents/indoor-air-pollut... "Gas stoves can generate unsafe levels of indoor air pollution" https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2020/5/7/21247602/gas-stove-cooking-indoor-air-pollution-health-risks https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2020/5/7/21247602...
- goodpoint 5y ago
  No, I'm responding to the statement about particulate. Gasses are a different topic. Also, the dangers of open flames are well known, unlike the ones of particulate.
macNchz 5y ago
I am able to find many journal articles confirming my observations that cooking produces significantly elevated indoor PM2.5 levels, many of which suggest it to be harmful, but I'm not finding anything about the relative impacts of the different substances that make up fine/ultrafine particles. People involved in this research seem to think it will require more study: >“We know that inhaling particles, regardless of what they’re made of, is detrimental to health. Is it equally bad as inhaling exhaust from vehicle emissions? That we don’t know that yet,” [1] Regardless, my sensor, at least, doesn't register water vapor as particulate. I can run an ultrasonic humidifier with distilled water to no effect on the measured PM2.5, or with tap water which will spike the particulates from the dissolved minerals. 1) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/17/cooking-sunday-roast-causes-indoor-pollution-worse-than-delhi https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/17/cooking-...
JoeDaDude 5y ago
This is one of the selling points of induction stoves, but you will have to balance air quality with exposure to high EM fields.
- sagarm 5y ago
  Are there known health impacts from EM fields generated by induction cooktops? The only plausible risk I can find is to people with pacemakers.
jozzy-james 5y ago
i mean, i'm on an electric stove - and i have a cloud of oil/smoke when i properly sear stuff, given i have no ventilation outside of a small window. can't imagine that's too good.
- jozzy-james 5y ago
  and before you ask...100 year old house and no money

5e92cb50239222b 5y ago

It does not measure water vapor, at least not the one I'm using (PMS5003). I always have windows tightly shut because of the extreme pollution outside, so 100% humidity is easy to reach simply by mopping the floors (which stay wet for hours after). It does not change PM measurements one bit. Fry a couple of eggs though, and PM 2.5 quickly goes over 100 µg/m³. Burn a piece of meat just a little bit and see it rise over 300 µg/m³.

eutectic 5y ago
What about suspended water droplets?

crazygringo 5y ago

The thing that sends my PM2.5 skyrocketing the most is, interestingly, my toaster oven. Like from 50 to 1500 in the space of 10 min. No food needed within -- just the heating itself. I have no idea what the particles are though -- metal? Paint? Carbon from burnt residue? Or just whatever the heating element itself is made of? Separately, cooking with gas (oven+stove) also sends CO2 way way up -- in my kitchen, from 500 to 1300 or so within 20 minutes. And that's with my range hood on.

thrashh 5y ago
Dust in the toaster?
sneak 5y ago
A lot of range hoods don't actually exhaust outside, and just suck stovetop air over some steel wool to condense the grease particles somewhere other than your walls. Not saying that's the case here, but several times I thought the range fan was exhausting the air, only to learn upon examination that it was just shooting it back out into the same room.
- klondike_klive 5y ago
  The last place I lived in - the cooker hood did exactly this, without even the steel wool. We noticed a growing stain on the ceiling and found out there was no outlet, no filter, just a fan blowing the greasy air onto the ceiling. This was a 1 bedroom apartment with one of the ubiquitous "kitchenette"s that are fitted these days, so that landlords don't lose a whole room to a kitchen that exhausted commuting professionals will never use. Our current place has a proper kitchen, but the cooker hood vents outside directly next to the central heating boiler's intake.
goodpoint 5y ago
Carbon from burnt residue, most likely, and that could be quite unhealthy. Clean the toaster!
- crazygringo 5y ago
  Thing is you can't really deep-clean it... it's not particularly dirty, I keep the bottom free of crumbs etc., but when oil droplets from food collect against the back surface and polymerize there, what can you do...? You can't exactly throw the toaster oven in the sink and scrub the inside surfaces with steel wool and Barkeeper's Friend under running water like you can with pots and pans. Nor do toaster ovens have a "self-cleaning" cycle where you try to just vaporize it all... they simply don't get hot enough.

nyghtly 5y ago

You're leaving out the most important part: cooking with gas. "Natural gas and propane stoves can release carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and other harmful pollutants into the air, which can be toxic to people and pets." https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/documents/indoor-air-pollution-cooking https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/documents/indoor-air-pollut... "Gas stoves can generate unsafe levels of indoor air pollution" https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2020/5/7/21247602/gas-stove-cooking-indoor-air-pollution-health-risks https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2020/5/7/21247602...

goodpoint 5y ago
No, I'm responding to the statement about particulate. Gasses are a different topic. Also, the dangers of open flames are well known, unlike the ones of particulate.

macNchz 5y ago

I am able to find many journal articles confirming my observations that cooking produces significantly elevated indoor PM2.5 levels, many of which suggest it to be harmful, but I'm not finding anything about the relative impacts of the different substances that make up fine/ultrafine particles. People involved in this research seem to think it will require more study: >“We know that inhaling particles, regardless of what they’re made of, is detrimental to health. Is it equally bad as inhaling exhaust from vehicle emissions? That we don’t know that yet,” [1] Regardless, my sensor, at least, doesn't register water vapor as particulate. I can run an ultrasonic humidifier with distilled water to no effect on the measured PM2.5, or with tap water which will spike the particulates from the dissolved minerals. 1) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/17/cooking-sunday-roast-causes-indoor-pollution-worse-than-delhi https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/17/cooking-...

JoeDaDude 5y ago

This is one of the selling points of induction stoves, but you will have to balance air quality with exposure to high EM fields.

sagarm 5y ago
Are there known health impacts from EM fields generated by induction cooktops? The only plausible risk I can find is to people with pacemakers.

jozzy-james 5y ago

i mean, i'm on an electric stove - and i have a cloud of oil/smoke when i properly sear stuff, given i have no ventilation outside of a small window. can't imagine that's too good.

jozzy-james 5y ago
and before you ask...100 year old house and no money