Hacker News Reader

Comment by seltzered_ | Hacker News Reader

Not just melting chemicals but also forms of laser cutting materials too.

E.g. reminded of the death of this couple from carbon monoxide (possibly but not concluded to be by a laser cutter setup) - https://www.berkeleyside.org/2017/04/20/still-mystery-inspec... , https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13507734

View on HN

LASER cutting is also melting (and evaporating) chemicals.

Isn't cooking also cutting, melting, and evaporating chemicals? These definitions are overly broad. Isn't this how California ended up with Prop 65?

Laser cutting brownies is probably fine. That said, there's plenty of evidence that fumes from cooking can negatively affect indoor air quality. You should always open a window when you cook.

You mean the recently highlighted issue of gas stoves, or do you mean something that affects electrical stoves as well?

Purely an anecdote, but when I cook something with my induction range or even air fryer or oven my air purifier goes from 1 to 9 or even 12 (1-12 scale). And it is somewhat outside the kitchen.

So yeah, there is probably lot going on. From simple water vapor to those by products that come with browning.

Depends on the sensor in your purifier, right? If it just optically counts particles in the air it should trigger by harmless water vapor.

In kitchens where lots of frying is done, the whole place eventually gets coated in a thin layer of oil, even the parts no person could normally reach. Aerosolized or vaporized cooking oil, condensing on everything. I doubt working in a kitchen like that is good for your lungs in the long term.

I just changed a filter in my air purifier after having it next to the kitchen for about 6 months. The prefilter was covered in a layer of cooking oil mixed with dust. The built in air quality monitor always shows poor air quality wheen cooking. Its no joke, especially in places that have poorly constructed/cheap stove ventilation.

That's yet another reason why I hate the trend of the last thirty years or so to open kitchens, but I'm in the minority so I have to look for older houses that haven't had a clumsy renovation to an open floorplan if I want an enclosed kitchen.

I just quit cooking with oil like that. I'm better off for having an open kitchen to be much less constrained and much more healthy. If you're refusing an open kitchen because you deep fry everything including the twinkies, i'd suggest you have larger issues!

> You mean the recently highlighted issue of gas stoves

I don't think it's a recent issue. It's law, where I live, to have ventilation to outdoors, at any source of combustion gasses. Most of the "recent" papers say that most of the problems can be removed by using that fan that's right above the oven, by law. I am surprised that it's not also law to have these fans turn on automatically.

Fumes from many cooking processes are also pretty bad for respiratory health.

And I have an exhaust hood over my cooking range, so I think it's fine?

I used to regularly visit a hacker space that was constantly on the verge of getting evicted because their laser cutter fumes (vented out of the building, through numerous filters) were pissing off the whole neighborhood. Laser cutting is no joke. Eventually they changed their policy to only laser cut wood. Wood smoke is still carcinogenic, but I guess the smell of wood smoke is more familiar to people so it gets fewer complaints.

Melting, laser cutting, heating, stressing, grinding, any time you are releasing any kind of particulate into the air, you should be taking precautions not to let it end up in anyone's lungs.

Even the stuff that doesn't cause cancer can still cause you physical harm. It takes very little effort to just be safe.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com