I just asked ChatGPT: when using a fry pan, does the smoke contain formaldehyde and benzene?
> Cooking at very high temperatures (over 450°F or 232°C), especially with oils or fats, could theoretically contribute to benzene formation.
That is a mighty hot fry pan. The hottest cooking that I know of in common practice is "wok hei"-style from China. When you start cooking, the food rarely exceeds 230C. When you are heating the pan, the oil may exceed 230C for a few seconds. If you use a fry pan, but cook in Mediterranean-style, the temperatures are much lower.
Formaldehyde and benzene are to volatile to condense onto or absorb into PM2.5 particles. Cooking oil particles can contain other toxic compounds formed during heating, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), acrolein, and various aldehydes and ketones. If formaldehyde or benzene react to form less volatile products, those reaction products might become part of particulate matter, but they're no longer formaldehyde or benzene at that point. So while cooking emissions do produce both harmful VOCs and harmful PM2.5 simultaneously, they remain distinct categories of pollutants.
"could easily"
I just asked ChatGPT: when using a fry pan, does the smoke contain formaldehyde and benzene?
That is a mighty hot fry pan. The hottest cooking that I know of in common practice is "wok hei"-style from China. When you start cooking, the food rarely exceeds 230C. When you are heating the pan, the oil may exceed 230C for a few seconds. If you use a fry pan, but cook in Mediterranean-style, the temperatures are much lower."could easily"? Hardly.
Formaldehyde and benzene are to volatile to condense onto or absorb into PM2.5 particles. Cooking oil particles can contain other toxic compounds formed during heating, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), acrolein, and various aldehydes and ketones. If formaldehyde or benzene react to form less volatile products, those reaction products might become part of particulate matter, but they're no longer formaldehyde or benzene at that point. So while cooking emissions do produce both harmful VOCs and harmful PM2.5 simultaneously, they remain distinct categories of pollutants.