Ventilation improvement for reducing individual exposure to cooking-generated particles in Chinese residential kitchen

This paper investigates the situation of residential kitchen ventilation and individual exposure in China and attempts to reduce the exposure through organizing local make-up airflow. Measurements were conducted in a kitchen chamber to reproduce the real exposure to the cooking-generated particles under the mode of natural make-up airflow surveyed. Measurements results show that an individual cooking in a kitchen could be exposed to a concentration of airborne particles at ∼10 mg/m3 within a simplified cooking process of oil heating, in the case of an experimental kitchen chamber with an open window or closed window/door. Local make-up airflow through upward make-up air supply or downward make-up air supply was further investigated to determine the effectiveness for reduction of the exposure level. When the air-supply velocity at the outlet of the upward make-up air supply or downward make-up air supply mode was well defined, the individual exposure level could be reduced by 2–3 orders of magnitude, as compared to the baseline case when all the make-up air was from open window. Intake fraction of cooking-generated particles could be as low as ∼10−5 and ∼10−6 under the two modes. This finding has illustrated that well-organized local make-up airflow could largely reduce an individual’s exposure to the cooking-generated particles in Chinese residential kitchen.