The Poisonous Aroma of Freshly Baked Cookies

A swarm of "white killers" were on the loose at the Baltimore office last week...

Specifically, they were the desserts at the holiday-cookie swap.

It's a yearly tradition here at Stansberry Research, where the editorial and production team meet for lunch... that is, a lunch filled with cookies, brownies, and holiday "ugly" sweaters.

While I didn't don a sweater, I snuck a cookie or two for myself.

You might assume I'm going to be discussing today the perils of scarfing down too many gingerbread cookies.

Nope.

Rather, I'm going to be focusing on the perilous process of how those gingerbread men were born in the first place...

Cooking releases all sorts of nasties into the air.

Combine that with the human tendency to hunker indoors from the chill – and their reluctance to crack open the windows – and you get pretty can see how easily the quality of air inside of your home can deteriorate.

(By the way, Grandma's home cooking isn't the only source of indoor air pollution... Check out this issue of Retirement Millionaire for more sneaky ways of making the air in your home unsafe. If you're not a subscriber to my newsletter, why not gift yourself – or a loved one – a trial subscription? Get the details here.)

Thanks to your holiday cooking endeavors, the air inside of your home features a peanut gallery of pollutants like:

Particulate matter ("PM"): "Fine" particulate matter measures at 2.5 microns or less in diameter, and these are also known as PM2.5 particles. (A micron is one-millionth of a meter.) Their teeny size allows PM2.5 particles to infiltrate the deepest parts of your lungs and get into your bloodstream. According to the most recent annual Air Quality Life Index from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago... PM2.5 pollution shaves more years off of the average person's life than smoking or communicable diseases like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. In the U.S., PM2.5 cuts short the lives of about 48,000 folks each year.

PM2.5 is a major ingredient in wildfire smoke and, you guessed it, the smoke from burning those cookies. But you don't have to cook food to a crisp to expose yourself to PM2.5... Anytime you combine high heat and combustion of fats from cooking oil, you're releasing loads of PM2.5 into your home. Frying, grilling, and broiling are the biggest culprits, whereas boiling and steaming don't release as many pollutants. According to a 2020 study, Thanksgiving Day cooking can result in indoor PM2.5 concentrations as high as 149 micrograms per cubic meter of air. And for comparison, the city with the worst PM2.5 pollution in the world last year was Begusarai, India, which had an average PM2.5 concentration of 118.9 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

The choice of appliance matters, too... Gas stoves can churn out way more PM2.5 than electric stoves.

Carbon monoxide: Gas stoves are a big source of this pollutant, one you know as an odorless, colorless gas that can quickly kill you in an enclosed space. That's why you (hopefully) have carbon monoxide detectors installed alongside smoke detectors. Exposure to high levels of carbon monoxide causes breathing problems because carbon monoxide binds 250 times more strongly to red blood cells than oxygen does. Folks with certain types of heart conditions are especially vulnerable to high outdoor levels of carbon monoxide.

Volatile organic compounds ("VOCs"): According to researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration... if you can smell it, there's a good chance it's impacting air quality.

This was from a multiyear study on urban air pollution published in May. Scientists measured levels of VOCs across three major U.S. cities. In Las Vegas, a startling 21% of the total amount of VOCs came from cooking (courtesy of the many restaurants packing the city).

That percentage is from the total mass of VOCs found outside. It's even worse indoors...

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, indoor concentrations of many VOCs are up to 10 times higher than outdoor concentrations.

High VOC levels can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea, and irritate your eyes and lungs. And over the long run, constant exposure can even damage your liver, kidneys, and nervous system or cause cancer.

As for some tips to save your lungs in preparation for, or after, a holiday-cooking blitz...

Flip that range-hood switch. Turn on the range hood or exhaust fan on your stove every time you cook.

Clean that cooktop. Constantly reheating and recooking those bits of burnt food residue or leftover grease splatters releases airborne pollutants. So make sure you're keeping your stovetop, oven, and microwave spick-and-span.

Pass on the gas stove. On the off chance you're doing some renovating or planning on buying a new home, go for an electric stove. That's because gas and propane stoves can pump out pollutants like VOCs, PM2.5, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, and more. A Purdue University study published earlier this year reported that gas stoves can release just as many nanoparticles into the air as exhaust from a car.

Ventilate regularly. I know it's cold outside. But if you're planning on cooking up a storm and the air quality outdoors is safe, bundle up and crack open some windows for a few minutes. According to the American Lung Association, "Opening your doors and windows for 15 minutes each day is one of the best ways to increase ventilation."

Invest in an air purifier. I recommend a machine with a "true HEPA" filter that can capture 99.97% of airborne particles – those that are small enough to get deep into your lungs and cause health problems. (Regular HEPA filters snag 99% of those particles.)

I also recommend buying a unit bearing the "AHAM Verifide" logo on the box or in the product description. That means the unit has been tested by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers' independent laboratories. AHAM measures how efficiently the device cleans the air via the clean air delivery rate ("CADR"). There are multiple CADR scores for pollutants like pollen, dust, and tobacco smoke. A higher CADR score means faster cleaning of the air. And when choosing an air purifier, make sure the CADR score is at least two-thirds of the total square footage of the room you need clean air in. AHAM has a searchable Directory of Certified Room Air Cleaners here, too.

What We're Reading...

• Researchers serve up an improved model of indoor pollution produced by cooking.
• Something different: Why some cats are orange – and tend to be males.

Here's to our health, wealth, and a great retirement,

Dr. David Eifrig and the Health & Wealth Bulletin Research Team
December 17, 2024