Cooking and toasters

In an effort to understand the particle exposure which we experience indoor every day, we used the Fast Aerosol Sizer (DMS500 Mk2) to monitor the emissions from two common activities: using a toaster, and pan-frying bacon.

The empty toaster emitted nanoparticles throughout its operation: the particles had a narrow size distribution with a peak around 7 nm, shifting to about 15 nm towards the end of the cycle. Rapid decay in particle number was observed as soon as the toaster turned off, but a persistent increase in ambient level concentrations was seen.

Cooking bacon led to a more variable particle size distribution, with peaks around 50 to 100 nm. The cook was directly exposed to short transients of high particle concentrations when turning over the bacon, but a persistently increased ambient particle concentration was also recorded.