to make our home candle free over air quality concerns

[toriuk]

Dp loves candles, but I've always thought they are not good with all that black smoke. We have cut down a lot, but aibu to just get rid of them all?

I hear that beeswax candles are safe, but a pack of 6 tea lights costs 5, so no way can we afford that.

I won't have them in the house because my husband has allergies to various perfumes, but also I'm terrified of fire. I have a friend whose dh is a fireman and she says he tells her about the dangers of the blooming things. They cause no end of conflagrations.

Scented candles are really harmful to caged birds (so I do worry what is in them) but I have no birdlife indoors and I love my Yankee Candles.

Threads like this are fascinating - I had never before considered the health implications of candles (other than the fire risk).

I have never bought a Yankee candle. I am astounded by the price of them, and also it really bugs me that I cannot walk past the card shop in our local shopping centre without my breath catching due to the overwhelming mix of synthetic scents.

Conflagration - new favourite word thanks hatespiders. I just lit a scented candle for the hell if it. I'll get Dp to keep you posted if I have respiratory issues.

Pictish

i read somewhere that burning candles was good for your heart.

OOAOML I'm the same. The stench in the shop is overpowering, and reminds me vaguely of public lavatories in the fifties!

It's only overpowering because there's hundreds of different scents in one place. You can smell the candles from the outside of our local store even when it's closed! Yankee candles can be very nice, the candy corn Halloween one and Christmas Eve one are my favourites so far. Agreed on price being astonishing though, that's why I only have the seasonal ones. I know a yankee candle addict that spends £50 every pay day just on new yankee candles . Now the stench of the Lush store otoh gives me a headache...

Anyway there's conflicting opinions on candles much like with anything. One week they'll give you cancer the next week they'll stop you having a heart attack . Just burn 'em if you like 'em. Candles are the least of our worries.

I am fascinated that all the candle theories have passed me by. I just thought they were a way to provide atmosphere, and light in a power cut.

I used to like buying the small scented candles from Wax Lyrical, but they were affordable.

My husband will make concerted efforts to avoid walking past Lush. My daughter loves to go. Then she loves to talk to her friends about it. She once spent three quarters of an hour on Facetime with a friend going through a Lush catalogue.

Technically, candles burn via incomplete combustion, producing carbon monoxide, carbon and water vapour. You should notice black marks if your candles are in jars etc.

Apart from the obvious fire hazard, the risks of CO poisoning (for example) from a candle are neglible. Just clean any container regularly to remove the soot.

I wouldn't want to breathe any form of smoke, but the main thing I have against candles is that they make the walls and ceiling very dirty.

My friend has candles going every night and from the state of her lounge you wouldn't believe the room was decorated a year ago.

YY Hate- I work with industrial cleaners (the type you get in after a fire / flood / bloody murder), and the director was saying about 75% of the domestic fire jobs they do start from candles. I've always been wary of them and the staining to decoration puts me off. Would only use them very occasionally now.

You don't get soot or dirty ceilings with soy candles as they burn at a much lower temperature and there's no nasties.

I like candles but I never burn them. Just want them to look pretty.

thanks. not sure i will get 10kg. maybe just 1kg to start with, some reports are saying soy candels still arent great

We have candles lit most nights in the winter, love them! Keep the wicks trimmed and they won't smoke as much.

I have a caged bird who is 25 years old, so far he sends to have survived death by scented candle!

Love the poem Pictish.

I love candles too.

I was even a bit paranoid about our big pumpkin outside on the doorstep on Hallowe'en. I used tea-lights (dirt cheap in a discount store) on a saucer, but I made sure the thing was as safe as poss and blew it out religiously at bedtime.

I use loads, IKEA ones. Never had a problem with their smoking and they smell lovely. So do my Yankee candle plug ins. I use Fabreeze, too, and fabric softener.

Actually its incorrect that soy cables produce less carbon than paraffin candles. They typically produce more. Beeswax are no better. Candles will only smoke if the wick if the wrong length. It's easily remedied, trim the wick.

And if a tiny bit of smoke from a candle is a health hazard then god help those of use with real fires at home.

Well in the old days before electricity they had nothing but candles to light their homes. And where are they all now? Dead, thats where. Proof if ever you needed it.

Does your family drive a car op?!