The delicious smell of food cooking at restaurants, food trucks and street vendors might be negatively impacting air quality, a study from NOAA has found
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The researchers released the startling findings from a multilayer study of what they call "underappreciated sources" of urban air pollution
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"If you can smell it, there's a good chance it's impacting air quality," researchers said in the study
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The team focused on three cities in the United States where they measured human-caused volatile organic compounds (VOCs) related to cooking
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They found that Las Vegas, which has one of the highest number of eateries in the United States, has persistent air quality issues
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On average, 21% of the total mass of VOCs present in Vegas' outdoor air were from "cooking activities," NOAA estimated
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Overall, researchers concluded that air pollution from cooking is vastly underestimated and could account for nearly a quarter of VOCs in urban areas
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The problem is even more acute indoors and inside homes, experts warned
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Based on the new findings, cooking emissions could be the single largest missing source of urban VOCs in current air quality models, per the study