AAAR 31st Annual Conference
October 8-12, 2012
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Ultrafine Particles Emitted from Microwave Popcorn
Qunfang Zhang, Jessica Avalos, YIFANG ZHU, University of California, Los Angeles
Abstract Number: 32 Working Group: Indoor Aerosols
Abstract Microwave popcorn could release significant amounts of volatile organic compounds, particulate matter, and air toxics when popping and opening bags. This study was designed to characterize ultrafine particles (UFPs, diameter < 100 nm) emitted from microwave popcorn. A microwave oven was enclosed in a chamber with ports for air sampling and a fan to control air exchange rate inside the chamber. Pre-packed popcorn was cooked in the microwave oven while UFP size distribution and number concentration were measured. The popcorn tested in this study covered six different flavors. The UFP emission rates of microwave popcorn ranged from 1.2×10$^11 to 2.4×10$^13 particles/hour. The UFP size distributions were unimodal, with the mode around 40 nm for two flavors and around 80 nm for the others. The bag-to-bag variation of UFPs emitted by microwave popcorn was greater than the flavor-to-flavor variation, indicating limited influence of flavor on UFP emission rate. Foil-lined popcorn bags increased UFP emissions during popping by a factor of 2~13 compared with brown paper lunch bags, suggesting innovative package might reduce exposure to UFPs from microwave popcorn. UFP emission rates were slightly lower when cooking with a new microwave oven than a used oven, although not statistically significant. A positive relationship between UFP emission rate and power setting of microwave oven was observed.