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Description
There is a growing shift in the food consumption patterns in America from home cooked meals to fast food restaurants, such as food courts within shopping malls. Therefore, the environments in which the population now spends obtaining their food are within facilities that conduct constant cooking activities. Cooking activities have the potential to increase air pollutant concentrations such as particulate matter (PM) and black carbon (BC), causing a health concern to the populations exposed. In this study, exposure to PM2.5, PM1.0, (PM less than 2.5 and 1 μm in aerodynamic diameter) and BC were quantified within cooking and non-cooking microenvironments at four shopping malls in California. The microenvironments within each mall sampled were the food court, three seating areas, and the parking structure. The DustTrak DRX, P-Trak (TSI, Inc., Shoreview, MN), the A51 microAeth (AethLabs, San Francisco, CA), and HOBO Data Logger (Onset Corp, Bourne, MA) were utilized to measure real time concentrations over three sampling days throughout the week for each mall. The mass concentration of PM2.5 within the parking lot averaged 8 μg/m3, PM1.0 particle count from 10,654 pt/cm3, and BC mass concentration of 0.626 μg/m3. Seating areas averaged PM2.5 mass concentration of 7 μg/m3, PM1.0 particle count of 9,651pt/cm3, and BC mass concentration of 0.403 μg/m3. Lastly, the food courts daily average concentrations of PM2.5 were 26 μg/m3, PM1.0 particle count of 58,585 pt/cm3, and BC mass concentration of 0.715 μg/m3. Overall, PM2.5 mass concentration and PM1.0 particle count emissions were the highest within the food courts, followed by the parking structure and seating areas. BC mass concentrations were the highest within food court but with food courts coming in at a close second. Currently, there are no regulatory standards for indoor PM and BC, therefore the data was compared to past studies who’ve correlated pollutant concentration exposure to negative health effects. Further research into indoor air quality exposure in retail cooking environments, such as the food court, is needed to understand the potential risk of personal exposure for shopping consumers.
