This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Restaurant workers in commercial kitchens with gas and propane appliances can face heat and air pollution at levels above health-based guidelines, according to a new study by researchers from PSE Healthy Energy, the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and New York University Grossman School of Medicine, in collaboration with chef Christopher Galarza. The peer-reviewed study, "Combustion-Derived Air Pollution and Heat from Gas-fired Appliances in Commercial Kitchens Can Exceed Health-Based Guidelines," published in Environmental Research Letters, is the first U.S. analysis to compare air quality and heat exposures in commercial kitchens equipped with gas-fired appliances to those that are all-electric under real-world working conditions.
The research team measured nitrogen dioxide (NO2), benzene, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane and air temperature in areas where employees work during restaurant service and overnight. The research, based on measurements from 21 gas kitchens, three propane kitchens and three all-electric kitchens across California, Pennsylvania and New York, has implications for workers across the U.S. restaurant and food industry, which employs an estimated 15.7 million people. About 5 million of those employees spend all of their working hours in the kitchen.
"Very few studies have measured what cooks and chefs breathe during a normal shift," said lead author Yannai Kashtan, Ph.D., an air quality scientist at PSE Healthy Energy. "In some gas kitchens, we observed that several pollutants exceeded health-based guidelines, while the all-electric kitchens ran cooler and cleaner than those using gas or propane appliances." This research is part of PSE Healthy Energy's Methane + Health Initiative, which aims to improve scientific and public understanding of the link between methane emissions, air pollution and public health. While no all-electric kitchen exceeded health guidelines for pollution exposure during cooking hours, researchers recorded one or more exceedances in most kitchens with gas or propane appliances.
For NO2, a pollutant associated with a higher risk of asthma, approximately 70% of the gas kitchens exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) one-hour outdoor air standard of 100 parts per billion by volume (ppbv) during working hours. In one kitchen, a 15-minute average NO2 measurement exceeded 1,000 ppbv, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's (NIOSH's) recommended limit for short-term workplace exposure.
Concentrations of carbon monoxide and the known human carcinogen benzene exceeded California's one-hour exposure guidelines in three and five gas kitchens, respectively. "Commercial kitchens have received much less attention than home kitchens for measuring indoor pollution," said study co-author Rob Jackson, Ph.D., a professor of Earth system science at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. "Our study shows that burning gas in a restaurant kitchen is as suspect as burning it in our homes.
All-electric kitchens emitted none of the pollution we saw in kitchens burning gas." Jackson is faculty director of Electrification for Health, a program of the Stanford Center for Human and Planetary Health that works to protect human health through clean electric systems that reduce air pollution indoors and outdoors and meet people's energy needs. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. d research that matter—daily or weekly. The study also provides new evidence of an exposure pathway from gas appliance pilot lights that consistently remain lit, raising concerns for cleaning crews and early-arriving staff.
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