The Smoke Test
If you are working in a hot commercial kitchen you should ask yourself, “is this kitchen filled with burned gas fumes or just hot air?”
Effluent from gas fired commercial cooking equipment is invisible to the human eye. Gas stoves emit nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and formaldehyde (HCHO). All of these can worsen respiratory ailments and inflame lung tissue.
Professional kitchen contractors and mechanical engineers still use the classic smoke test as a low tech visual tool, and anybody can interpret the results. Smoke is either exhausted out through the vent hood, or it spills into the kitchen…it is that simple.
Do not make the mistake of thinking the smoke that escapes into the kitchen is the only breathing hazard. If you have “spillage” with the smoke test, it is invisible burned gas emissions that are pushing the smoke into your kitchen. Think of the smoke as a surf board, and the gas emissions as the surf flowing from gas appliances.
Now you can determine if your kitchen has hidden dangers in the breathing air, or if it is just hot and uncomfortable. Hot air can be dealt with in several ways including air-conditioning and swamp coolers. However, burned gases must be vented out with adequate exhaust hood air volume and balanced Make-up Air volume to protect the living air in your kitchen.