Potential exposure of cooks to airborne mutagens and carcinogens.

Recent case-control and proportionate mortality studies in Canada, the United States, Britain, and Denmark have shown that cooks and other food-service workers may have elevated risks of cancers of the nasopharynx, buccal cavity, esophagus, lung, and bladder. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine if there might be airborne products of cooking which may be risk factors for these cancers in cooks. Eight air samples were taken in four restaurants and subsequently analyzed for mutagenicity using the Ames assay, and for carcinogens using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. All four samples taken in the restaurant cooking areas were mutagenic to TA98 without metabolic activation, and two were mutagenic to TA100 also without metabolic activation. Of the four dining area samples, one was mutagenic to TA100 and one to TA98, both without metabolic activation. Compounds tentatively identified by mass spectrometry did not include known carcinogens. The ventilation systems in all four restaurants allow the exposure of cooks to both the air from dining room smoking areas and the volatile products of cooking.