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Cooking and cleaning do more than release substances into indoor air: they can set off chemical reactions among pollutants, oxidants and surfaces. HOMEChem, a month-long 2018 experiment in a controlled Texas house, studied those interactions during staged everyday activities. Its measurements show why indoor air chemistry matters, but they describe specific experiments—not every home or a direct measure of health effects.
What was the HOMEChem experiment?
In June 2018, researchers from 20 groups brought analytical chemistry instruments worth a reported $4.5 million (£3.4 million) to a University of Texas at Austin test house and nearby shipping containers. The project, whose name stands for “House observations of microbial and environmental chemistry,” was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Science in School later described 65 scientists taking part.
Rather than simply recording the amount of each chemical present, HOMEChem set out to examine how indoor chemicals interact and react. As co-lead Marina Vance of the University of Colorado Boulder explained to Chemistry World, the project sought to understand “how they interact with each other and drive chemistry and chemical reactions indoors.”
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Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Researchers staged activities including cooking, cleaning and occupying the house, sometimes in sequences and including a Thanksgiving-style meal. They measured organic compounds, oxidants such as ozone and chlorine, reactive nitrogen oxides, and chemicals that settled on surfaces. The controlled setting made it easier to interpret measurements than a typical field campaign, where activities and building conditions vary.
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What happened to the air during cooking?
Science in School’s 2019 overview reports notable particle and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) measurements during particular HOMEChem cooking experiments:
| Staged activity | Reported measurement | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Stir-fry | About 350 µg/m³ PM10 | Particles were attributed to both cooking oil and food. |
| Breakfast: frying eggs, sausages and tomatoes and making toast | About 200 µg/m³ PM2.5 | Reported during this staged breakfast experiment. |
| Thanksgiving-style meal | About 200 µg/m³ NO2 | The overview attributes the emissions to the gas hob. |
These are reported experiment values, not measurements that can be assumed for a typical meal in every kitchen. The overview also gives World Health Organization guideline values of 50 µg/m³ for a 24-hour PM10 mean and 25 µg/m³ for a 24-hour PM2.5 mean. It does not establish that HOMEChem’s reported particle values use the same averaging periods, so the figures should not be treated as like-for-like guideline comparisons. See the Science in School HOMEChem overview for the experimental context.
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Why can indoor chemicals react?
Indoor air is not chemically inert. Cooking, cleaning, building materials and people can contribute different substances; those substances can mix and react, while some settle onto surfaces. HOMEChem’s focus on interactions was intended to help explain chemistry that a list of individual pollutant concentrations might miss. Co-lead Delphine Farmer told Chemistry World that “there’s some really surprising chemistry happening.”
Surfaces are part of this picture, not just places where particles disappear from the air. Science in School discusses pollutants settling on surfaces, residues known as third-hand smoke, and reactions involving ozone, skin oils and chlorine compounds associated with cleaning. These are distinct mechanisms; the HOMEChem coverage does not establish health outcomes from them in the test house.
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What HOMEChem can—and cannot—tell you
A controlled test house helps researchers connect measured changes to planned activities. At the same time, results depend on the sources present, what people do and the building’s conditions. A staged cooking measurement is evidence about that experiment, not a forecast for every household. The campaign was presented as a starting point for understanding indoor chemistry, rather than a comprehensive survey of homes.
The Chemistry World report described the field campaign’s close in July 2018, with analysis and quality control still ahead at that time. That was a status update in 2018, not a statement about the project’s current status. The educational overview published in 2019 provides selected results and background, but the reported measurements do not by themselves establish a health risk or quantify exposure in a particular home.
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Practical steps while cooking and cleaning
Science in School recommends ventilating often, especially during cooking and cleaning, and using a cooker hood when using a hob. These are general practical suggestions, not findings from a comparison of appliances.
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Quick Recap
- Use available ventilation during cooking and cleaning.
- Run a cooker hood while cooking on a hob, if one is available.
- Do not infer a specific appliance’s performance from HOMEChem: the project coverage did not test or compare consumer products.
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