Oh No, Is Burning Incense Bad for You?
Is it???
Candles are great but what’s also great is incense. Feel free to attribute that quote to me whenever you’d like.
“Candles are great but what’s also great is incense.”
— Kelly Conaboy
Incense: you light it and it fills your space with a good scent very quickly. Mmm. At home, during the holidays, my family has an incense burner that’s shaped like a snowman and the incense smoke comes out of his pipe. Quite a sight. Can’t do that with a candle, you have to admit. At the yoga studio I rarely visit, one of the yoga instructors burns a very nice incense and it makes you wonder: why not all of the yoga instructors? Come on. Maybe it’s that instructor’s “thing” an the other instructors don’t want to seem like they’re aping her style, but she didn’t invent burning incense and sometimes you have to let things go for the greater good and be a team player.
Now think about your own incense story, so it’s not all about me.
OK.
Last night, as I was breathing in so much incense smoke that my whole mouth tasted like incense and my nose burned and my throat burned, I thought, “Oh no. Could this be bad for me?” An interesting question.
I wasn’t sure if this was a question everyone knew the answer to already so I asked Silvia, editor of the Awl and the Hairpin, if she ever thought about it. She said she hadn’t, then she asked what incense is made of, and I told her plants and oils, which is true, and then she said this:
Hm. Will anyone ever be able to hold a conversation with Silvia during which she does not brag about listening to “the radio”? Jury’s out on my end…
Anyway I’m not any sort of a person who knows anything so I typed “incense cancer” into a search engine and here is what came up, from a variety of reputable sources.
Although several studies have not shown a link between incense and cancer of the lung, many other types of cancer have been directly linked to burning incense.[specify] A study published in 2008 in the medical journal Cancer found that incense use is associated with a statistically significant higher risk of cancers of the upper respiratory tract, with the exception of nasopharyngeal cancer. Those who used incense heavily also had higher rates of a type of cancer called squamous-cell carcinoma, which refers to tumors that arise in the cells lining the internal and external surfaces of the body. The link between incense use and increased cancer risk held when the researchers weighed other factors, including cigarette smoking, diet and drinking habits. The research team noted that “This association is consistent with a large number of studies identifying carcinogens in incense smoke, and given the widespread and sometimes involuntary exposure to smoke from burning incense, these findings carry significant public health implications.”
Ehhh. Interesting. With that in mind, The Hairpin would like to present to you a quick three-step way to enjoy incense even though you have read these headlines and quotations from “Safe Bee,” etc.:
1. Light Incense
2. Enjoy
3. Die Eventually, Thank God
Thank you.