Cooking emissions have long been seen as an odour problem. However recent studies showed that particle matter is the main health risk of indoor air (Logue, 2013) and cooking can be a major source. Research by MacNeill in 50 Canadian dwellings indicated that 16% of the fine dust originates from indoor sources in the summer, increasing to 41% in the winter. Studies on range hood flowrate and design optimisation showed that there could be a signification reduction of PM2,5 due to cooking. Research in Dutch offices has shown that filtration of ambient air can reduce the indoor PM2,5 concentration significantly. This explorative study aims to quantify the exposure to PM2,5 in 4 Dutch dwellings with two different ventilation systems and with or without mitigation actions. With optical particle counters PM2,5 concentrations were determined in the living room/kitchen and a bedroom of 4 dwellings during a week. Two dwellings were ventilated by a natural supply and mechanical exhaust, and the other two with balanced ventilation with heat recovery. One dwelling used a standard G3 filter and the other an M6. In the dwelling with the M6 filter the effect of an optimised range hood was measured. The results of the cases are described in the paper.
