Should Incense be Oulawed? Raises Cancer and Asthma Risks
In case you think that incense burning is harmless you may want to reconsider after you read the list of toxic stuff that comes from the burning tip of an incense stick:
Similar to second hand smoke, pollutants emitted from incense burning in a close area are clearly dangerous to your health. Particulate matters (PM), and some of volatile organic compounds, ketones, xylenes, and ambrette, aldehydes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, diethylphthalate (DEP) are toxic to the lung and produce allergies in the skin and eyes. It is relatively difficult to directly study the effect of incense smoke pollutants on health, several epidemiological studies have provided evidence that they do cause health problems and raise cancer concerns.
There are various forms of incenses, including sticks, joss sticks, cones, coils, powders, rope, rocks / charcoal, and smudge bundles. A typical composition of stick incense consists of 21% (by weight) of herbal and wood powder, 35% of fragrance material, 11% of adhesive powder, and 33% of bamboo stick. It will take from 50 to 90 minutes to burn a stick of incense. When incense is burning, it emits smoke (fumes) containing particulate matter (PM), gas products and other organic compounds. Once the incense coating section has burned completely, the burning extinguishes itself at the tip of the bare bamboo part of the stick. The gas products from burning incense include CO, CO2, NO2, SO2, and others. Incense burning also produces volatile organic compounds, such as benzene, toluene, and xylenes, as well as aldehydes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which mostly are absorbed on particle matter.
It is difficult to say which respiratory ailments are specifically the result of incense exposure since the data on this is limited. It is clear that the smoke produced does contain harmful compounds. Epidemiological studies have reported associations between air particulate matter (especially the fine particles) and several acute health effects, including mortality, hospital admissions, respiratory symptoms, and lung dysfunction. The USEPA 2004 Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter conclusion states that Particles in the range 10 to 2.5 ?m were associated with respiratory morbidity. Smaller particles are even worse for the lungs because they get farther into the small airways and alveoli of the lungs where they may cause damage. The burning of incense could generate large quantities of Particulate Matter. On average, incense produces Particulate Matter greater than 45 mg/g burned, as compared to 10 mg/g burned for the cigarettes.
Other gases in incense are also not good for your respiratory health:
Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless. It is poisonous and it is formed by partial combustion of organic compounds, such as incense, hydrocarbons, wood,cigarette, and fossil fuels. Carbon monoxide combines with hemoglobin more tightly than oxygen, by a factor of 200-300. Carbon monoxide reduces the blood’s ability to transport oxygen. Inhaling Carbon monoxide in low concentrations will result in headaches, dizziness, weakness and nausea, while high concentrations can kill.
Sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) — Health effects of exposures to sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide can include reduced work capacity, aggravation of existing cardiovascular diseases, effects on pulmonary function, respiratory illnesses, lung irritation, and alterations in the lung’s defense system.
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are chemicals that have low boiling points and therefore evaporate easily at room temperature. Common VOCs include benzene, toluene, xylenes, and isoprene. Acute symptoms of VOC exposures are: eye irritation/watering, nose irritation, throat irritation, headaches, nausea/vomiting, dizziness, and asthma exacerbation. Chronic symptoms of VOC exposure are: cancer, liver damage, kidney damage, central nervous system damage. Incense burning generates CO, isoprene and benzene.
Aldehydes and Ketones—-Most incense materials produce aldehydes and ketones during combustion. Burning incense is also known to generate aerosols and formaldehyde. Lin and Tang investigated the content of particulates in Chinese incense smoke and found that acrolein, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde were predominantly adsorbed on smaller particulates, especially those particulates with size of 3.3-4.7 microns and 2.1-3.3 microns. The small particles are the ones that get furthest into the lungs. Aldehydes are volatile organic compounds typically characterized by their irritating properties. In addition to irritating skin, eyes and the upper respiratory tract, aldehydes also affect nasal mucous membranes and oral passages, producing a burning sensation, bronchial constriction, choking, and coughing. Exposures to formaldehyde are of concern because formaldehyde is a potent sensory irritant and is classified as a probable human carcinogen. Epidemiological studies have correlated wood dust and formaldehyde with nasal cancer.
Diethylphthalate (DEP) –In India, diethylphthalate is used extensively in the incense stick industry as a binder of perfumes. It can be emitted into the air during incense burning. Eggert and Hansen reported that DEP emission from various incense could be as high as 16,365 mcg/m3. Diethylphthalate (DEP), is a phthalate compound used as a plasticizer and a detergent base, is a suspected carcinogen and probable hormone disrupting compound implicated in fertility problems and DNA damage in sperm. Diethylphthalate (DEP) alone leads to severe impairment of lipid metabolism coupled with toxic injury to the liver.
Carcinogenicity Concerns: In a 1966 study , Sturton et al reported a high incidence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Hong Kong in male patients who burned incense when compared with the other patients
that were used as controls. They found that 74.5% of the studied nasopharyngeal cancer cases and 52% of all other malignant cases were exposed to incense smoke and suggested the possibility that incense smoke may be a factor in causing nasopharyngeal cancer. Extracts of particulate matter from incense smoke are found to be mutagenic in the Ames Salmonella test with TA98 and activation. This suggests that incense burning can cause indoor air pollution and thus cancer akin to that from cigarette smoking. Analysis of the
data from the 123 matched pairs showed an increased risk of leukemia for children whose
parents burned incense at home. Furthermore, the risk was greater for more frequent users. Preston-Martin et al. studied mothers of 209 young brain tumor patients and 209 control subjects. They found that increased brain tumor risk was associated with maternal contact with nitrosamine-containing substances such as burning incense, side-stream cigarette smoke.
Asthma and Irritated Airway Concerns: Since people working in religious temples may be exposed to high levels of air pollutants from incense burning, Ho et al. have investigated the prevalence of chronic respiratory symptoms and acute irritative symptoms among 109 temple workers in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. They concluded that working in a temple increases the risk for the development of acute irritative
respiratory symptoms, including nose and throat irritation. Temple workers exposed to incense burning had 4.5 times the chance of respiratory tract problems compared to the controls. Also, chronic cough symptoms were much more common among the temple workers than those from the non-incense
burning church, the control group.
Lead Exposure: The concentrations of lead have been detected at 0.14 and 0.21 mg/g in Particulate Matter 2.5micron and Particulate Matter 2.5-10micron in the sample collected at one temple in Taiwan, respectively. It is speculated that lead emitted from incense burning could be absorbed on Particulate Matter 2.5 micron and Particulate Matter 2.5- 10 micron and subsequently transferred to fetal blood and modulated the fetal immune system with IgE production. The relationships between incense burning, cord blood lead, and cord blood IgE levels is still unproven but is a theoretical risk.
ref: http://www.clinicalmolecularallergy.com/content/pdf/1476-7961-6-3.pdf
