Cooking food is possibly polluting the air you breathe, study reveals

On the streets of downtown Las Vegas, a savoury smell fills the air and lures diners to indulge in Sin City's culinary delights. However, amid the tantalising aromas, there is a hidden menace that looms and threatens the very air we breathe. Recent research conducted by NOAA's Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL) has revealed a startling truth - the alluring scents wafting from restaurants may be more than just a feast for the senses and they could be significantly impacting air quality.

Matt Coggon, lead author of the study, reportedly said,“What we’re looking at from cooking are primarily oxygenated VOCs, or volatile organic compounds."

"These are quite reactive in the air, so we expect they’ll be important for air quality," he added.

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The investigation, part of CSL's SUNVEx field campaign, uncovered that cooking emissions contribute to nearly a quarter of human-caused volatile organic compounds in the bustling urban downtown Las Vegas.

Surprisingly, this revelation contradicted previous estimates by the US National Emissions Inventory that pegged cooking emissions at a mere 1 per cent.

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Coggon's team, equipped with cutting-edge instrumentation, embarked on a mission through the city's streets, tracing the invisible trails of pollutants emitted during culinary endeavours. Their findings unveiled that in downtown Las Vegas, cooking emissions vie with vehicle traffic as significant contributors to air pollution.

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“Over the years we’ve measured all sorts of different VOCs across the USfrom different sources, like vehicles, wildfire smoke, agriculture, and consumer products,” explained Coggon.“We kept seeing a specific class of compound in the urban measurements, what we call long-chain aldehydes, that we couldn’t explain from these other sources.”

This discovery revealed the overlooked impact of cooking activities and underscored the need for comprehensive strategies to mitigate urban air pollution.

“It’s crucial to have the full picture of emissions and sources... to help policy-makers understand the effectiveness of their decisions,"Coggon added.

(With inputs from agencies)