Study: Candles May Contribute To Indoor Air Pollution
You may want to think twice about covering up that stench in the bathroom by lighting up 25 votives. A new study by researchers at South Carolina State University found that "paraffin-based candles — the most popular kind — emitted toxic chemicals like toluene and benzene."
Soybean candles, however, did not. Which isn't to say that soybean candles escaped the fear factor entirely. According to George Thurston, Ph.D., an associate professor of environmental medicine at the New York University School of Medicine:
"Just lighting a match to start a candle creates sulfur pollution in the air." He adds, "It's one of the big sources of sulfur in the indoor environment, so using a lighter would probably be cleaner."
Study: Some types of candles may pollute indoor air [CNN] (Thanks to Shaula Evans!)
(Photo: brunkfordbraun)
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So this means that if you eat sugary chocolate cake in candlelight, you're polluting the air and your body. Way to go, people. Many guys will have to find new ways of proposing to their girlfriends (or boyfriends). Next you'll say that champagne causes kittens to have hernias - there goes another method for people to propose.
I guess all that's left is the baseball jumbotron. Sucks for the people who only enjoy baseball and want to propose during hockey season.
In other news, the Earth is round. Nothing here, move along...
I give up
This is going to so depress my mother and her insane collection of Yankee Candles. I swear, that woman has an entire shelf in the pantry devoted to candles...
Wow, really wouldn't want to celebrate a birthday with these guys.
They would probably remind you that "Happy Birthday" is a copywritten song that can't be performed in public without paying royalties to the rights holders too...
What is released in the restroom alone contributes to indoor air pollution.
"Whooo...does...number...two...work for???"
I always assumed it was due to the chemical scents they put in them. I bought some soybean based candles with essential oil as the scent and they didn't bother me nearly as much.
Since paraffin is petroleum based it goes to figure.
Bird owners have known this for years! If something is severely toxic for my bird, I think twice before using it for myself (I'm looking at you non-stick pans)
@pecan 3.14159265: Jumbotrons use jumbo amount of electricity. And fancy restaurants are incredibly unhealthy for your body AND for the wallet. Not to mention that buying diamonds only encourages the rape of the environment and killing of african kids.
At this rate, we might as well stop falling in love. All those chemicals gushing into your brain probably cause cancer too.
Yes, combustion is not 100% efficient, hence pollution.
Also, water is wet.
However, as a person who has known this for many years (I have no candles or pets in the house) it is still amazing to me how many people minimize the health impacts of their own actions but magnify the actions of others who expose these same toxins to people.
"We who are like senseless children shrink from suffering, but love its causes. We hurt ourselves; our pain is self-inflicted! Why should others be the object of our anger?" - Shantideva
There are lawsuits against employers, agencies, and other individuals who blatantly endanger our health - long and short term - and we take great offense at second-hand smoke, BPA in plastic water bottles, atrazine in water, lead in paint, GMO crops in our foods, hormones in our chicken and beef, e coli in our spinach, salmonella in our peanut butter, etc.
Our individual health is our individual responsibility first.
The article is suspect in suggesting that a lighter (burning butane or naphtha) is somehow more environmentally friendly than burning sulfur. Less of an odor for sure, but sulfur is generally pretty benign as far as raw materials go.
Was this study funded by a soy candle maker's union?
Beeswax candles don't seem too hard to find, though--a friend of mine uses them exclusively. Reportedly you don't want to mix the two, though, or some bad chemical juju occurs--pardon the technical term.
How did you know my PartyLite candles just arrived? *looks around nervously*
@Eldritch: I have to admit, in my moderate-sized apartment, I have 8 Yankee Candles, two of which are burning right now. They're addictive!
@Kimaroo - 20% More Kitty Added!: Or.. "They're" actually.. since usually females don't do the proposing. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
@TinkishDelight: Reptile owners as well. As much as I love me some scented oil burners and scented candles, we don't use anything if the reptile room needs to be de-stinkyfied.
If you need me, I'll be weeping in the corner of my concrete bunker and contemplating my impending doom.
My wife contributes more to the air pollution in our house than all of the cars in our city, combined.
@pecan 3.14159265: You can always use the new Cowboy's stadium center jumbotron, just make sure to have one of the kickers punt a football and hit it so your BF/GF looks up.
@Damocles57: Same reason many folks are terrified of flying in a commercial airliner and opt to drive instead. The odds of an accident are much higher in the latter. Emotion trumps cold statistical analysis. Being in control of your own automobile on a long trip somehow feels safer than passively sitting in a pressurized tube at 37,000 feet under the control of unseen pilots.
@HIcycles: btw, I'm glad she doesn't visit this site, and even if she did, she doesn't know my screen name.
There are lawsuits against employers, agencies, and other individuals who blatantly endanger our health...
@Damocles57: Yeah, usually because said employers, agencies, and other individuals either hide the damage they're doing to other people's health or they flat out lie about it.
It is not hypocritical to accept some dangers to your health and to reject others. Just because someone likes scented candles doesn't mean they have to like salmonella. Liking one thing that has negative consequences does not obligate anyone to accept all harm that others may do to them.
Considering that candles give off smoke, Im surprised people thought that candles were inherently safe.
You know what is even more dangerous? Farts from the next cubicle and hot air from stupid studies.
What about using flint and tinder to light the candle?
@JennQPublic: Did it fit around your ring finger snugly, or did you have to take it in to get adjusted?
Repeat after me (again): THE POISON IS IN THE DOSE
That he discovered trace amounts of these substances is of no consequence at all. Notice there is no mention whatsoever of 1) how much of these substances were emitted and 2) how much it takes for it to be dangerous.
This is sensationalist crap.
This just in: fire is bad.
@Damocles57: As Rectilinear Propagation has mentione,d it is not hypocritical to accept some risks and dangers. It's called "risk assessment". It's something you have to do on a day-by-day basis. Yes, even you, Damocless57. Do you drive? That's dangerous. Heck, do you leave the house?
People sue when these dangers are hidden or lied about, especially if it's intentional.
Your logic just isn't, well, logical. By what you've said here, I see you sitting in a padded room. But you don't, do you?
Life has risks. But everyone has a right to know what those risks are, and assess if it is worth it.
For me, candles are worth it, doing coke lines is not. See how that works?
I would still rather breath toluene and benzene than morning bathroom air after a night of Tacos and Tecate.
@chuloallen: There is absolutely nothing I hate more than the guy in the cube next to me that thinks no one can smell his farts... I swear he turned up his radio yesterday to try and cover up the smell.
@GitEmSteveDave_HasTanLines: Yea it worked great when america started calling french fries "freedom fries" lol
@zarex42: But how are we supposed to drum up middle class white support for all that indoor air pollution if you keep pointing out facts that are counter-productive to our cause?
@Damocles57: Your argument conflates two different things.
One is the choices we can make for ourselves - i.e. burning a candle in our own home.
The other is the power that others have to make choices over which we have no control but which affect us nonetheless - i.e. GE polluting the Hudson.
"Magnifying the actions of others," as you put it, is not as hypocritical as you make it sound. It is simply the attempt to have some measure of control over actions taken by others that can be harmful to us, in the same way that we have control over our own potentially self-harming actions.
You know what contributes to indoor air pollution in my apartment? Stinky car exhaust from the parking lot outside. I'll take pretty candle smell over that any day.