Let's note here that comparisons between cooked food and smoking are of limited value, not only because PAHs are absorbed through the digestive tract in one case and through the lungs in the other, but also because it is thought that the main carcinogen in tobacco smoke is the presence of nitrosamines. Moreover, cooked food (in general) doesn't contain tar or nicotine.

Air pollution usually contains many fewer PAHs than what a smoker breathes, and in fact much less than the average level of PAHs in food. (Even raw food can contain PAHs, due to air pollution [Lodovici 1995, Wickstrom 1986].)

Most PAHs are not carcinogenic, although a few are (such as benzo(a)pyrene). They appear mainly in meats cooked at high temperature--grilling, for example. Microwaving doesn't produce PAHs, and foods other than meats contain negligible amounts of PAHs. Foods low in fat, or cooked beneath the source of heat, contain many fewer PAHs, so the type of food cooked and the method of cooking are important.

More quantitatively, the table below shows the amounts of pyrene and benzo(a)pyrene, two PAHs known to be carcinogenic, expressed in micrograms per kilogram of food. There are of course other carcinogenic PAHs, and many more noncarcinogenic ones, but the point here is just to get an idea:

AMOUNTS OF POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS (PAHs)
IN SELECTED COOKED MEATS

Figures are expressed in mcg per kg of food.

As we see above, the ranges are quite wide, probably due to extreme sensitivity to the cooking method. Oven baking produces minimal amounts of PAHs, even in the most fatty meats like frankfurter sausages.

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