Assessment of total volatile organic compound (TVOC) in the kitchen for educational setting / Nor Aini Azrie

There are many risks that most people are not aware off especially when it comes to cooking activities which with the use of fire have become a part and parcel of life. Cooking activities have been identified as a main contributor to indoor air pollutants and Total Volatile Organic Compound (TVOC) is one of the major pollutants emitted from the cooking activities. Exposure to TVOC from cooking emissions may harm humans as materials attached to the surface of skin particles will be absorbed into the human body and can induce a range of adverse human health effect. In this study, TVOC emitted from two types of kitchens which were culinary and pastry as an educational setting at Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management in UITM Puncak Alam were measured. The results demonstrated that culinary kitchens gave the highest TVOC concentrations (.485 ± 0.308) compared to pastry kitchens (.296 ± .196), due to their different of cooking methods. Meanwhile, for the stages of cooking indicated that during cooking activities recorded the highest TVOC concentration (.579 ± .245), followed by after cooking activities (.245 ± .181) and before cooking activities (.156 ± .060) mainly because of TVOC emission increase with the increasing of temperature. It was proved that cooking activities can contribute to the amount of TVOC emissions in the kitchens. However, TVOC concentration emitted from both of the kitchens were still within the standard limit established by Malaysian Industry Code of Practice (ICOP) and data from health risk assessment also demonstrated that concentration of TVOC in the kitchens do not imposed any of health consequences to the students there.