Size Distributions of the Aerosols Emitted from Commercial Cooking Processes

Abstract

Exposure to cooking fumes may be responsible for respiratory health effects. However, the linkage between such exposures and these effects cannot be established without knowing the size distribution of the aerosols emitted from cooking activities. This study examined the size distribution of the aerosols generated by commercial cooking processes. It was found that the aerosol size distributions were lognormal. Several theoretical models can explain the lognormal characteristic of aerosols from cooking processes and the simplest one is a bounded multiplicative process that represents the growth (or shrinkage) of aerosols in a random manner. Our results showed that by defining the mode diameter (geometric mean diameter) and the dimensionless geometric standard deviation one could describe the size distribution of cooking fumes in general. This characterization model can be applied to cooking fumes from indoor as well as outdoor cooking processes. The results of our measurement also showed that the mode diameter of aerosols increased when cooking temperature increased. The normalized number concentration of sub-micrometer aerosols increased rapidly when cooking temperature increased especially in the size range between 0.1 and 1.0 mm, known as the accumulation mode.

Chemical Characteristics of Fine Particles Emitted from Different Chinese Cooking Styles

“…For instance, Wallace et al (2008) conducted an intensive measurement and believed that the majority of the particles emitted from cooking were less than 10 nm with the peak concentration occurring around 5 nm to 6 nm. Yeung and To (2008) draw a conclusion that size distribution of particles followed a lognormal distribution and the diameter increased as cooking temperature increased. Attention was also focused on ultrafine particles (UFPs, diameter < 100 nm) from cooking as they can affect the human health more than larger particles.…”

Indoor PM2.5 Characteristics and CO Concentration Related to Water-Based and Oil-Based Cooking Emissions Using a Gas Stove

“…This might be due to the existence of water vapor droplets during boiling, as suggested by See and Balasubramanian (2006). In contrast, frying generated more submicron-sized particles than boiling, and the emitted aerosols were less volatile (remaining in particle state) and more easily coagulated (Yeung and To, 2008). These growing particles settled during transportation to the adjoining room.…”

“…For instance, on the basis of cooking temperature, Yeung and To (2008) found that aerosol peak number concentrations occurred in the 100-160 nm range and that at higher cooking temperatures, the aerosol mode diameter increased. Moreover, in their experiments, bimodal distributions of submicron-sized aerosols could be expected to be generated.…”

Determination of Size-Dependent Source Emission Rate of Cooking-Generated Aerosol Particles at the Oil-Heating Stage in an Experimental Kitchen

“…Such assumed source was insufficient to obtain the actual exposure concentration. A number of studies (Siegmann and Sattler, 1996;He et al, 2004;Yeung and To, 2008;Wallace et al, 2008;Buonanno et al, 2009;Zhang et al, 2010;Diapouli et al, 2011) have attempted to measure the number concentration of indoor particles during cooking activities. Their measuring points were located a certain distance away from the source to represent the wellmixed concentration in the space.…”