‘FOOD FUMES WON’T DAMAGE YOUR LUNGS’

Recent headlines that suggested cooking could expose people to o more polluted air than a busy road had Dr C fuming...

Recently, the same headline was everywhere, all focused on the same dodgy comparison; making a roast dinner is as bad for your lungs as standing on a polluted street in Delhi. What nonsense!

DON’T BE WORRIED

The results from the study quoted haven’t even been published yet – this story only made headlines because the university department was at a panel discussion, yet some people were claiming making a roast dinner is so dangerous, we should boil everything. A press release will have been sent out to health reporters, and they have all pulled out the most shocking fact – that roasting releases more fine particles into the air than you’d find on the streets of Delhi, the sixth most polluted city in the world. For starters, you can’t compare diesel fumes and olive oil in the air. They aren’t the same kinds of pollution, and if you breathe them in they won’t do the same things to your body. It’s also mildly offensive to the people dealing with awful pollution in cities like Delhi, which is genuinely horrendous. A polluted city will have air thick with both car fumes and industrial pollution, and that is incomparable with your kitchen. It’s also about the exposure; if you cook a piece of toast, which these stories also talked about, then yes, the toaster will warm up any up debris and some particles will end up in the air, which are fine enough to get into your lungs, but that’s very shortterm exposure – nothing like living in Delhi and breathing in industrial pollution 24/7.

OPEN YOUR WINDOWS

The team cooked a full Thanksgiving dinner, so a roast with all the trimmings, for a whole day in the middle of a Texas summer. The “pollution” they detected lingered for an hour. When you live in a polluted city, you’re exposed to it constantly. Lots of people have extractors above their ovens, and everyone has a window. The researchers themselves advised simply keeping your kitchen ventilated by opening a window and using an extractor if you have one.

CHECK SMOKE ALARMS

We know that indoor pollution exists, but the main worries are asbestos, radon and tobacco smoke. Rather than banning toast or boiling your roast dinners, make sure you have an up-to-date carbon monoxide detector and smoke alarm and, when you cook, don’t burn your food, and open a window.