Is going to Church KILLING you?

Air inside churches may be a bigger health risk than that beside major roads, research suggests. The fact is that the air inside the church was found to be considerably higher in carcinogenic polycyclic hydrocarbons than air beside roads travelled by 45,000 vehicles daily.

More than this are the tiny solid pollutants. Inside churches there can be more that 20 times the legal Eurpoean limit.

The fact that Christmas is comming can only make it worse. Candles will be lit will only cause more 'indoor pollution'.

The researchers analysed the particulate matter concentration found in the air of a small chapel and a large basilica in Maastricht following lengthy use of candles or a simulated service in which incense was burned.

Fine particulate matter is a major ingredient in air pollution. Consisting of solid particles with a diameter of 10 microns or less, it contains different types of toxic chemicals, including soot, metals and various carcinogenic molecules.

The particles can penetrate very deep into the lungs and trigger various lung and heart conditions.

The researchers found that, after nine hours of candle-burning, the church air had PM10 levels of 600 to 1000 micrograms per cubic metre - more than four times higher than before the start of the first morning mass.

Quite the scary discovery...

Source

[edit on 20-11-2004 by MacKiller]

It's really odd that you are posting this right now.
Candles have been really fashionable for the past few years (in the uk at least), and not a evening goes by when I don't light up a scented candle. I've got a vanilla one burning right now.
The reason I'm saying it's odd that you posted about this, is that just yesterday when I was buying a couple of new ones , I found myself wondering if it was really all that good for me constantly having them burning in my house. I reasoned to myself , that if there was a real problem then surley you wouldn't have churches burning them in the great numbers that they do. Well I guess this has just proved that wrong.
Odd that this post should come up so soon after

I'll give you one guess what used to be in the incense pots back in the old days. Hint: it would get people in the spirit.

Isn't it something to do with the wicks? I recall reading on the label of some candles that the wicks were made around a lead wire, or something like that, causing the fumes to be dangerous....older candles or those made without that type of wick were not so bad.

....Has anyone else seen this warning??

I have a Sunday-goin-to-church inhaler.

If you hear someone having a spasmostic coughing fit, its me!

you can rationalise anything with Natural Selection...

I used to make candles a few years back....when you think about it.. it cant really be good to be breathing anything thats burning ey?

Just another thing to add to this nearly deceased thread. I read an article somewhere stating that the air inside Buddhist temples were horrible and that monks were actually getting lung cancer because of the heavy amount of incense smoke that is omnipresent in these places.