Cooking aerosols in all-electric flat and studio accommodations: event-scale emissions, transport, and exposure assessments using low-cost sensors

Abstract

Cooking generates short and intense pollutant spikes in indoor environments, while event-scale dynamics studies in compact, all-electric homes are rare. Our observational field study deployed calibrated low-cost sensors (LCSs) to 11 UK flat and studio accommodations, inhabited by occupants with varying cultural backgrounds. The LCS pods captured particulate matter (PM, including PM₁, PM_2.5 and PM₁₀) and gas-phase species (CO₂, NO₂ and O₃) levels at a 2-min time resolution, recording 247 individual cooking events over ∼1 year, and quantifying emissions for 125 quality-assured events. Traditional frying and braising dominated PM_2.5 peaks, emission rates and exposures, whereas water-based, oven and air-fryer emissions were lowest. Increased ventilation by using range hoods and/or opening windows reduced the transmission of kitchen peak PM_2.5 to the living room by 3–20% and the closed bedroom door sharply cut PM_2.5 transport from kitchen to bedroom (∼68% peak; 78% exposure; 91% elevated-time) with a 79-min lag. The accumulated inhaled dose of cooking-generated PM_2.5 across 125 events during 81 monitored days was in the range of 1.7 to 4.7 mg, annualising to ∼6–17 mg for an assumed 300 cooking days. LCS-reported NO₂ increases were small and infrequent, with only slight O₃ dips. However, NO₂ detection with LCSs is challenging; hence, we focus on the PM analysis. Our findings support low-burden controls, including preventing oil smoking, running well-maintained hoods during and after cooking with windows open, and keeping bedroom doors closed, to significantly reduce the inhabitants' exposures.