Estimation of health risks associated with trace elements emitted from cooking with electric stove

摘要

Background and objective Cooking is one of the main sources of indoor particulate matter (PM). Cooking even with cleaner sources of energy (gas, electricity) may also pose risks to human health. PM emissions from cooking contain trace elements, some of them being toxic and/or carcinogenic (As, Cd, Ni, Cr). The main objective of this study is to perform health risk assessments as a result of exposure to trace elements generated from cooking. Method A controlled study was conducted to understand the contribution of each cooking component including corn oil and beef meat on trace elements in PM emissions. No mechanical ventilation and natural ventilation existed on the sampling site. In each experiment, corn oil, com oil with table salt and beef meet were heated using an electric stove. Each set of experiments lasted 20 minutes (14 minutes heating and 6 minutes cooling for corn oil experiments, 18 minutes grilling and 2 minutes cooling for beef experiments). An Eight-Stage, Non-Viable Andersen Impactor was employed to collect the generated particles ranging from 0<0.43 urn to 3.3 urn (six cut sizes) on 81 mm quartz fiber filters including a backup filter for collecting PM0.43. Metal analyses were performed using an Inductive Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICPMS). A human health risk assessment was performed as a result of chronic exposure to As, Cd, Co, Cr, Ni, Pb, Mn, Ba. The methodology used for assessing health risk is described in a Risk Assessment Guidance for Superfund (Part F, Supplemental Guidance for Inhalation Risk Assessment) (US EPA, 2011). Exposure time was assumed to be 2 hours per day, exposure frequency (EF) was assumed 365 day, and exposure duration 40 years. Results The results of health risk assessment indicate that carcinogenic risk from As, Co, Cr exceed the acceptable level (1 x 10-4) (Table 1). Cr poses the highest carcinogenic risk, with the risk exceeding the acceptable level by two orders of magnitude. Carcinogenic risk from Cd, Ni and Pb is within the acceptable level. Non-carcinogenic risk (HQ.) values from all elements (except for Cd in oil with salt experiment) is higher than the safe level (= 1), with total risk exceeding the safe level 53-115 times. Ni poses the highest non-carcinogenic risk, with the HQ. value 7.74-46.22 depending on the experiment. Thus, professional cooks or housewives, which are exposed to toxic elements at chronic levels from cooking activities under poor ventilation may have significant health outcomes.