> Someone once said to me that cooking can increase particle pollution in the air to dangerous levels. Is this true? I suspect not.

Were they talking about gas hobs? Surely that's much worse than the electric/induction one you appear to be using.

No, gas combustion doesn't generate any significant amount of particles.

It produces CO2, NO2 and some CO. But it's not going to show anything on a PM2.5 meter.

The particles when frying come from the oil turning into smoke, as well as just aerosolization even well below the smoke point. These are what send PM2.5 levels skyrocketing.

When I sear a steak in cast iron, my PM2.5 levels go from their baseline of ~2 ug/m^3 to ~200–400. And course you can smell it in the air.

Gas combustion absolutely contributes to poorer air quality but I would argue that actually cooking (not what’s happening in this test) is much worse. Heating oil and cooking proteins will quickly fill a house. If you can smell it, the air quality has been reduced.