Air quality of high school kitchens within the Kumasi metropolis: examining indoor particulate and gaseous pollutants Boansi Adu Ababio 1 , Marian Asantewah Nkansah 1 , Jonathan Nartey Hogarh 2 , Thomas Peprah Agyekum 3 and Michael Kweku Commeh 4 1 Department of Chemistry, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi-Ghana, 2 Department of Environmental Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi-Ghana, 3 Department of Occupational & Environmental Health & Safety, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi-Ghana, 4 Technology Consultancy Centre (TCC), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi-Ghana Cooking with solid fuels leads to the premature deaths of approximately 11,000 Ghanaians per annum. Institutional kitchens, such as high school kitchens in developing countries like Ghana, heavily rely on solid fuels to provide meals for students and staff. Although high school kitchens are among the large-scale cooking industries in the country, the levels of indoor air pollutants in these kitchens during cooking remain unknown. To address this gap, this study measured the levels of indoor gaseous (SO 2 , NO 2 & CO) and particulate pollutants (PM 10 & PM 2.5 ) during an 8-hour occupational exposure period in 14 high school kitchens situated within the Kumasi Metropolis. The findings revealed that the levels of these criteria pollutants exceeded the permissible daily exposure limits and were found to be potentially harmful to human health. This novel study provides data indicating the overall poor indoor air quality in school kitchens and emphasizes the urgent need to accelerate the transition of school kitchens to cleaner cook stoves and fuels. References 1. Ababio, B.A., Nkansah, M.A., Hogarh, J.N., Agyekum, T.P. and Commeh, M.K., 2023. In-kitchen particulate matter emissions in high schools in the Kumasi metropolis, Ghana: Levels and the health risk assessment. Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances , p.100358.
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© The Author(s), 2023
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