Experimental evaluation of the impact of ventilation on cooking-generated fine particulate matter in a Chinese apartment kitchen and adjacent room.

Cooking is one of the major contributors to indoor pollution. Fine particulate matter (PM) produced during cooking commonly mix into adjacent rooms and elevates indoor PM concentrations. The risk of human exposure to cooking-generated PM is mainly related to the exposure duration and particulate matter (PM) concentration. The PM concentration is influenced by cooking methods and ventilation patterns. Range hoods and open windows are conventional strategies for lowering the concentration of cooking-generated particles. To decrease PM emissions, kitchen air supply systems have been proposed, providing alternative possibilities for kitchen ventilation patterns. The effects of cooking methods, air supply systems, range hoods, and windows on PM concentrations must be analyzed and compared. To understand and provide advice on reducing exposure to PM due to cooking activities, we measured the PM mass concentration in a kitchen and adjacent room during cooking. The identified factors, including cooking method, range hood use, window status, and air supply system, were varied based on orthogonal design. The delay time between the PM peak in the kitchen and that in the adjacent room was determined. The degree of exposure risk for cooking-generated PM was evaluated using the mean exposure dose. The results indicated that the mean PM mass concentration in the kitchen ranged from 22 to 2296 μg/m. In descending order, the factors affecting the indoor PM concentration in the apartment studied were range hood use, cooking methods, window status, and air supply system. The PM peak in the adjacent room occurred 200-800 s later than that in the kitchen. Other conditions being constant in these experiments, the use of range hoods, air supply systems, and windows reduce exposure doses by 90%, 37%, and 51%, respectively. These research results provide insights for reducing human exposure to cooking-generated PM.