Gas Stove
(Pixabay/CC0 public Domain)
A study has shown that organic aerosols from cooking can stay in the atmosphere for several hours due to nanostructures made by fatty acids.
Although aerosols have been associated for years with poor air quality in urban areas due to their varying interactions with the environment, their impact on human-made global climate change is not easily quantifiable. Because of the many molecules and their interactions with the surrounding environment, this is why there are so many.
“Cooking aerosols can account for as much as 10% of particulate matter, (PM) emissions.” Dr Christian Pfrang, University of Birmingham lead author, said that predicting their behavior accurately will allow us to assess their contribution to climate changes.
Experts from the Universities of Birmingham & Bath investigated the behavior of thin films of Oleic Acid, an unsaturated fatty acids that are commonly released during cooking.
The study was published in Atmospheric Chemistry and PhysicsThey used a combination of experimental data and a theoretical model to predict the amount aerosols that could be produced by cooking.
“We are increasingly discovering how molecules such as fatty acids from cooking can organize themselves into bilayers or other regular shapes and stacks inside aerosol droplets that flot in the air and how this completely changes the speed they degrade, how long it persists in the atmosphere and how they affect pollution,” said Dr Adam Squires of the University of Bath.
Research suggests that gas cooking produces approximately twice the amount PM2.5 as electric. It also produces nitrogen dioxides (NOx), carbon monoxides (CO), formaldehyde, CH2O and HCHO. If these pollutants are not properly managed, they pose a health risk.
**
The headline and text of the above article were published by a wire agency.
