[zeroonetwothree]

There was a bunch of articles about this in 2020.

After looking into the data my conclusion is the threat is overblown (big surprise), a large part of it is from cooking of any kind (heating produces particulates) and that if you take some basic precautions (open a window, use vent fan) the risk is very low.

[riddleronroof]

Exactly. These are opinion pieces with scary headlines. Almost nothing to back them up. Also strange to talk about developing countries having problems. They usually have chimneys. Hydrochlorides are there because of pans coated with them that burn them off. Guess what, they still end up in food no matter which heating you would use. So the problem is pans, not the heat. Cooking with fire is Lindy. And there is no other way to make rotis, tatziki (char the eggplant) and other things without fire.

[5e92cb50239222b]

I am from one of those developing countries. A chimney won't help you very much when everybody around you is burning coal/wood/plastic/rubber/bitumen for heat and it's 300 µg/m³ outside. The common suggestion to "open a window" reads like a joke.

[morsch]

Tzatziki is great on eggplant (charred or otherwise), but I've never heard of eggplant being an ingredient in Tzatziki.

Maybe you're thinking of baba ganoush, which is a dip with a charred eggplant and tahini base. I've made it with eggplant broiled in the oven, and it's fine, but I'm sure the taste is different if they're charred over a flame. (Even though you discard the charred shell either way.) That said you could easily accomplish that with a kitchen torch, the kind also used to finish creme brulee or (if you have a big torch) sous vide meats.

[petre]

A kitchen torch doesn't have enough energy, but one could use an electric or a wood, charcoal or gas grill. There is no way any state is going to take BBQ away from Americans.

There's also a Balkan variation of baba ganoush without tahini, just cooked eggplant, onion and sunflower or olive oil. It's boringly called 'eggplant salad' in my country. The Greek version is very similar and BBQing the eggplant makes even tastier. Another variation of this dish also exists in the Carribean, where it's called baigan choka.

[oneoff786]

BBQ grills are done outdoors though. They’re not particularly relevant

[morsch]

There are kitchen torches (Searzall) that are more powerful than most home gas ranges.

[random3]

You must be from Romania =)

[deepdmistry]

Although i agree that gas cooktops have several advantages in cooking non westernized meals, rotis can definitely be made on induction. Been making them since many years now.

[snapplebobapple]

got a recipe/walkthrough? I love me some roti, am tired of paying for the stuff made in the big oven/cooker things though. I have an induction cooktop already.

[samarthr1]

Make a soft dough with flour (ideally whole wheat), water, salt. Kneed thoroughly. List of sit for about 1/2 hour, in a bowl, covered with a cloth. Make smallish balls of of the dough. Dust a flat, hard surface with left over flour, roll into a thin disk of even thickness. The size is less important than the evenness in thickness.

Heat a pan, until a small amount of ghee/butter melts when placed on it. Place the roti on the pan, and cook each side. You will know that it is done when the roti slightly puffs up.

True skill is in making rotis which stay soft in a hotbox.

[tootie]

That last part is definitely not true. You can char stuff with any heat. I use an electric broiler.

[i80and]

It is extremely common, even default in the US in my experience, to not have vent fans not actually... vent. As a renter, I don't really get a choice in the matter.

Opening a window significantly is also pretty unfeasible most of the year.

[cplusplusfellow]

Do you also have a gas stove? I’ve lived in lots of places that have unvented blowers but none of them had gas. Would be against code in almost every city in America.

[i80and]

Yep, gas stove unfortunately. I can't speak to code, but most people I talk to share this experience -- I assume there's grandfathering at play.

[lupire]

It's just illegal and no one complained or enforced.

[tssva]

I just looked it up and section M1503.1 of the 2018 International Mechanical Code has an exception for range hoods which allows most to be used ductless. Some states, CA for example, don't allow this but the majority of states just follow the IMC code.

[2ICofafireteam]

Where I am, it's called non-conforming and, unless there's a complaint, it doesn't become a problem until you pull a building permit AND a Building Official notices.

[asveikau]

How much maintenance do those fans require to keep working well? I feel like the common thing is to basically not touch them, and they get pretty gross and don't seem to do much.

Edit: I got downvoted for this? I feel like I've seen a lifetime of these fans being decades old and in poor shape. I think you folks are vastly overestimating how many people clean those or replace the filter.

[tpxl]

They're basically char filters, so if you wipe them and change the filters every 6 months or so you're good.

I'd be surprised if the average change time is any less than 5 years though.

[osigurdson]

Very little maintenance is required but not zero. If it gets gross, wash it.

[cdtwigg]

You need to clean the filters regularly so they don’t become a fire hazard due to oil buildup; the better ones should have some kind of reminder system and will have filters that are dishwasher safe.

[emacsen]

I had a blower that recirculated with a gas stove in NYC, in a newish (2008 I believe) building.

New construction in NYC bans gas stoves.

[tssva]

The last 2 houses I have lived in both had gas stoves and unvented blowers. Both recently built.

[Spivak]

In new construction people are installing those microwave vents that literally do nothing except blow the air out the top of the microwave. It’s not totally worthless but it’s next to worthless.

[mastax]

Then the cabinets above the microwave get coated with a sticky layer of polymerized(?) oil - even quicker than they normally would. It's gross.

[2ICofafireteam]

New construction person in B.C. here.

We use them all the time and if they're not vented properly, we don't get occupancy. The HVAC designer or Engineer on the job wouldn't have it any other way.

[ChoGGi]

Microwaves can vent if you hook up its vent to a duct, cheap construction doesn't do that if they can get away with it.

[Spivak]

Yes and no, while I suppose you could technically attach a vent to the top half of the microwave and route it outside the upper vents are absolutely not designed for that and you would have the most awkward ugly installation that blocks your upper cabinet doors. So yes the reason for these units is 100% penny pinching and cheap construction but better construction alone won’t fix the problems with these microwaves.

[ChoGGi]

"you would have the most awkward ugly installation that blocks your upper cabinet doors"

No, you route it through the cabinet and if you don't want it to look ugly then you build a chase around it. I usually don't since the chase takes up more room, and no one really cares as it's in the cabinet.

And yes they are designed for venting outside, that's what these are for: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Master-Flow-3-1-4-in-x-10-in-x-7...

[Spivak]

We’re talking about two different kinds of microwaves. There are the ones you describe where the vent is inside the upper cabinet, those are designed to be vented outside. Then there’s the microwaves where the vent is in front of the cabinet doors, runs along the whole length of the microwave and blows up at the outside of the upper cabinet doors. There is nowhere you could even route it because anything on top of the microwave to capture it would physically block the doors from opening.

[rascul]

I see many of them that simply vent into the attic. This requires a properly vented attic, and has the downside of introducing moisture into the attic, which can lead to damage.

That said, mobile homes pretty much always vent outside in my experience.

[stefan_]

A lot of them do not vent at all. They just draw it up through a coarse filter and out the top again.

[rascul]

Yes, I see those too. I work on houses for a living though and those are not too common, at least around here. I typically might see those in the older houses, or in half assed renovations.

[maccard]

Those fans can be installed in two ways, venting or recirculating. In a recirculation mode you need to keep the filters clean, and they do an _ok_ job at keeping smells out of the kitchen, but if they don't vent outdoors then you need to open a window unfortunately

[bingohbangoh]

I'm fairly certain this piece is meant to drum up support for gas stove bans in places like Los Angeles or NYC.

Too coincidental. Certainly inspired by it.

If you really believe that gas is awful for environment, that more solar and thus electricity should be used, you'd find the reasons to justify it even as brownouts threaten the AC for a good part of Summer.

[julianeon]

I live in a part of California where the air is bad for a significant portion of the year - no less than one tenth to one quarter of the year. So opening the window wouldn’t save me from particulates & pollution - in fact, it would introduce them. The only solution for us is to not introduce them in the first place.

[kurthr]

I'd highly recommend putting together one of these very effective and inexpensive ($40?) air filters. Just taping filters together around a box fan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corsi%E2%80%93Rosenthal_Box

We used one them during the horrific fires with excellent effect.

[taeric]

Yeah, I can't but think the headline is true, but then leads immediately to, "but not as hazardous as you are now thinking."

[Glench]

On the other hand, here is some actual data a guy took in his kitchen showing that the indoor air quality was as bad as the big wildfires near his house: https://twitter.com/curious_founder/status/14817464603789926...

[tootie]

Can you share some of that data? It seems pretty obvious that burning gas is far worse for indoor air quality than a magnet. Even if there's options to mitigate the danger, they won't always be available or users may just forget to take them. An induction stove is foolproof.

And I think your point about particulates from actual cooking is probably true too. I think any high heat cooking or deep frying should be done outside if you don't have a powerful vent.

[qiskit]

Makes me wonder whether these stories are paid advertising ( by electric stove companies or whomever ) or the journalist had to write something and just winged it. I'm guessing most garbage in media is paid advertising, but who knows at this point.

[norvvryo]

Even without those precautions, how does the risk compare to commuting to work by car five days a week? I imagine the risk of chronic effects is orders of magnitude less.