Posted on 03/17/2003 8:02:40 AM PST by weegee
Barbecue's fatty fumes add to haze - Rice research shows fine particles matter
By DINA CAPPIELLO
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Environment Writer
When folks say Texans live and breathe barbecue, they really mean it.
In a study about to be published, scientists at Rice University have measured the tiny bits of polyunsaturated fatty acids created by cooking meat. These fine particles -- mixed with the diesel exhaust, car fumes and road dust that make up soot in Houston's air -- can lodge in people's lungs and contribute to the city's haze.
But while Houstonians have long joked about the "smell of money" emanating from the Ship Channel, barbecue enthusiasts don't see the humor in scientists' measuring the "fatty fumes" that are a byproduct of a favorite pastime.
"There are a lot of people who have grills at their house," said Jeff Shivers, executive director of the Texas Barbecue Association. "It's not like everybody is firing them up at the same time. There is so much other stuff in the area."
Analyzing particles in Houston's air, environmental engineer Matt Fraser of Rice University detected fatty acids among the millions of tiny organic particles that float in the city's atmosphere. The acids are released when fat drips onto hot coals and sizzles.
"It's definitely when you have an open grill. It's any process that generates meat smoke," said Fraser, whose study was recently accepted for publication in the journal Atmospheric Environment. "The compounds are specific to meat."
Come December 2004, fine particles may be subject to increased regulation in Texas if it is found that metropolitan areas such as Houston do not meet federal air quality standards for particulate matter -- what scientists call the mix of particles in the air. The area already exceeds federal guidelines for smog, and has until 2007 to come into compliance.
Research like Fraser's could be used by the state to determine which sources to eventually control.
These meaty particles -- a fraction of the width of a human hair -- are what you smell when you drive by a Burger King, steak house or barbecue joint. They are among dozens of particles, from cigarette smoke to tire wear, even cholesterol, that scientists can detect in the air using unique molecular fingerprints.
The only possible source of polyunsaturated fatty acids is meat cooking, according to laboratory tests. Scientists use other one-of-a-kind compounds to trace other pollution sources.
Fraser's analysis excluded inorganic particles, released by industry and large-scale combustion that comprise the bulk of particles in Houston's air.
"That just blows me away, because we are going to be a pollutant," said Sandy Babcock, treasurer of the Texas Gulf Coast Barbecue Association. "You think mold, tree spores ... but not meat particles."
Indeed, any suggestion that meat smoke could be a part of the hazardous particle mix is treated as downright un-Texan. Babcock's association, for example, boasts that the Lone Star state holds more than 400 competitive barbecue events every year. The organization's motto is, "Texans are born with a mission to go out and educate people about barbecue."
But Fraser isn't blaming the backyard cookout for Houston's pollution problem.
"Meat cooking is more important than wood burning, but it's less important than diesel," Fraser said. "These are trace levels. They are very low concentrations."
Fraser analyzed air samples taken from four locations between March 1997 and February 1998 for eight different sources of organic particles. Two samples were located near the heavily industrialized Houston Ship Channel. One, more representative of a suburban area, was on Bingle Road. For comparison, a fourth monitor was placed at the Galveston airport.
He found fatty particles from grilling meat in all areas. Proportionately, meat cooking was the biggest contributor only in Galveston, though the island had the lowest concentration of organic particles overall.
But unlike some of the other sources of organic particles studied -- including fuel oil, diesel- and gasoline-powered engines, road dusts and the waxes released by dead plants as they are run over -- the proportion of particles from meat cooking was constant regardless of season.
Similar air studies in Atlanta and Los Angeles have also found evidence of meat cooking. In health-conscious California, a 1996 study found fatty acids accounted for a greater percentage of the particles there than in Houston.
"There may be some difference in how many people eat meat or something, but it's really the density" of the city that determines the concentration of particles, Fraser explained.
In California, the research prompted officials to require fast-food restaurants that use chain-driven charbroilers to install ceramic filters on their exhaust vents. To meet ozone and small particle air standards by 2010, the state is considering more rigorous rules for restaurants.
"It's just part of our ongoing process here in the smog capital of the U.S. of having to go to every source of air pollution and making them do their fair share," said Sam Atwood, a spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District in Southern California.
In Maryland, air permits have been required for industrial-size charbroilers and barbecue pits since 1984, said John Scherer, a public health engineer with the Maryland Department of the Environment.
A search of the Harris County database for air pollution complaints found none related to restaurants, barbecue or grilling.
Regardless, it's tough to imagine much political support for cracking down on grilling in what might be the barbecue capital of the world.
Screw you guys! I'm goin home!
This is series (sic). It doesn't involve gasoline, the Smart girl or the Dixie Chicks.
This article is all smoke and mirrors. The smoke that the report seems to focus on (headline notwithstanding) are commercial places like Burger King. Back in the 1990s, there was the same stink raised about the odors that left bakeries (like Sunbeam bread) and donut stands.
When scientists focus on these contributions to the Gulf Coast's pollution problem and ignore the petroleum industry, cattle industry, repaving industry (melted tar, road dust, construction equipment, etc), trucking industry, port shipping industry, biological decay (vegetation, crops, forests), etc. it shows that they'd rather not address issues.
This same kind of misdirection got the EPA to lower our speed limits (the legislature didn't do it) from 70MPH to 55MPH (even though they knew that it wouldn't significantly change pollution levels).
The Kyoto Treaty directs us all to eat tofu and raw fish. No cooking fumes!
It's good to have some other threads on FR at times (all enemies of freedom are not overseas).
Hold muh lighter fluid BUMP!
It sounds like it was mostly designed to be enforced against lawn care companies.
Meanwhile our city's traffic lights are often 180 degrees out of phase (driving the limit from one light to the next gets you there as the light changes to red). Buses and semi-trucks are allowed to idle here too (not so in NYC).
They want to push new law enforcement on the civilians rather than actually address the sources of pollution. When Houston does dip down below "acceptable" air standards (dipping down for 60 minutes in one day counts as a full day) it can be seen to be coming from the petrochemical industry in time readings of the pollution.
This whole "Houston has bad air" thing came up as a political issue because George W. Bush was a Texas Governor running for President. We lost our status of worst air to LA again. The standards were changed and I suspect that they were changed so that Houston would get that distinction in a presidental election year.
Mayor Leepy Period Brown refused to counter the Rat charges about Houston's air until after the 2000 election. Now Houston faces a PR nightmare.
Houston's bad at times but the landscape is flat and we are at sea level. Things blow over (as they do at Galveston with that Gulf wind).
When the West Coast gets heavy forest fires, we can get some smokey skies in Houston. We all feel the effects of other regions air.
In Texas BBQ isn't a noun, it is a verb. We barbeque beef, pork, fish and fowl. Heck, about the only thing that never sees the grill is cream corn. And "To Barbeque" is more than just the cooking. It is the beer and camaraderie, the kids and the dog frolicking in the yard, sharing a computer to check the latest posts on FR. . .
Stay safe; stay armed, stay smokey,
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