Does being around too much oil kill your health or lungs in any way?

This OSHA report indicates some potential health hazards:

Potential symptoms: Irritation of eyes, skin, and respiratory system; lacrimation (discharge of tears).

Health Effects: Nuisance particulate (HE19)

Affected organs: Eyes, skin, respiratory system

Notes:

1. Studies in rabbits indicate that vegetable oils (sesame seed, poppy seed, olive), in contrast to animal fat oils or mineral oil, cause little if any lung pathology.
2. Increased respiratory symptoms (e.g., dyspnea) of kitchen workers exposed to fat aerosols during frying at high temperatures have been reported.
3. A large number of thermal and oxidative decomposition products, some with known toxic properties, can be produced during the stir-frying or deep fat frying of foods in various seed oils (corn, canola, soybean, hydrogenated cotton-seed).
4. A case of lipoid pneumonia was reported in a worker who observed the testing of fire extinguishers against fires involving lards and shortenings for a firm that made and tested “restaurant fire control systems.”
5. Eight former workers at a microwave popcorn production facility where there was exposure to volatile organic compounds from heated soybean oil mixed with salt and butter flavorings were diagnosed with a severe lung disease, bronchiolitis obliterans, and some other workers there also showed obstructive pulmonary function abnormalities (see Diacetyl).
6. A similar lung disease but also involving lung alveoli called bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia was described in beagle dogs that had accidental intra-airway exposure to oleic acid, a major component of some vegetable oils such as soybean oil.

Find another part time job after the summer, cc!

Really interesting question and answer Harp. This never even crossed my mind, but it makes sense, as I am sensitive to smells and if I stay in a restaurant that has frying going on, I can smell it on my clothing when I leave and have to change when I get home. If it is being taken in by fabric like that, it follows something strange must be happening to the lungs.

@Marina, haha, i’ll just quit KFC after summer, but i already have another job. :P

@Seesul, i never thought about this question either, my parents are really protective… lol

@Harp, thanks. =D

I’d worry about the “Secret Herbs and Spices”......

@boffin, what ‘secret herbs and spices’??

The seasonings that the Colonel uses…..

My southern mom (who made absolutely the best fried chicken in the entire world) used to laugh about the secret herbs and spices. She only used flour, pepper and a little salt. the method and the quality of the chicken was all that mattered for her to work her magic.

@Seesul My Mom made hers the same way! It’s all in the temperature of the oil, not so much the seasonings that makes good old southern fried chicken. She could put KFC to shame!

@Scamp: EXACTLY. Did your mom use the flour in the oil trick to test if it was hot enough? I did follow her around the kitchen and write down step by step, every move she made before she passed away. I’m still scared to try to duplicate it, though. My gramma and mom were also picky about the chickens they used. Gramma raised her own, I used to get the ones at Whole Foods for my mom. The market ones used to be okay, but they became tougher as the years went along.

@Seesul & scamp My mom would examine each chicken part minutely and remove by hand anything she did not care for. Heaven forfend if there was a nascent feather remaining.

Yep, she did that! And what marina says above too. No wonder southern fried chicken is the best!! I make it myself sometimes, but I just can’t seem to do as well as my Mom did. I bet your Gramma’s chicken was to die for! The fresher the better, right?

Despite the arteries slamming shut in anticipation, cream gravy, anyone?

Hell yeah!! Might as well get the grits going too! What the hell, let’s do it up right. I’ll have some sweet tea and cornbread with all that!!

I’ll bring the buttermilk biscuits and pecan pie.

It’s a date!!

No sugar in the cornbread, but buttermilk is good! Our Southern mothers would disown us. I willl bring the field peas with snaps and the corn cut off the cob.

And let’s not forget the boiled peanuts!! Yeee Haww!!

Where did the sugar in the cornbread ever come from in the first place. It’s cornBREAD not corncake. Gramma made it in a cast iron skillet, as well as the chicken.

@scamp Every time I got visit my Mom in Seattle, I have to pack cans of boiled peanuts in my suitcase!

@Seesul Yankee abomination.

@Seesul Any good southern woman worth her salt has an iron skillet! I think it is a requiremnet, ha ha!

@Marina canned? Oh no! I got spoiled on the real thing. But I hang my head in shame and admit I do sneak a little sugar into my cornbread from time to time. sneaks into corner to hide.

@scamp Can’t carry the fresh ones. They are hard to find here in Florida without going outside of the city. I remember visiting my grandparents and walking into town to the loading dock at the tobacco warehouses where the men would have a kettle going, and you could get a bag full for practically nothing.

@s&s Yes, cast iron, although the older I get, the heavier it gets.

@Marina that’s true. My house in Florida is in the country, so we can find peanuts boiling on almost any corner.