Help!!! In a panic about burning incense!!!

[SingleSweetie]

DH and I bought a lovely incense stick holder during a trip to a wildlife park overseas. Since then, our daughters have loved choosing the sticks for this, and we probably burn one or two sticks every couple of days. Sometimes one a day.

I had no idea how dangerous these are to our health, and I’ve just read something which has alerted me to this. I’m in such a panic over what damage I may have done to my children! 😢😢

Inhaling smoke from anything is harmful to health but if it's just occasionally it's unlikely to do any long term damage. Every other day is probably a bit much though.

What about one of those essential oil diffusers instead?

Heavy, regular incense use does pose a health risk, but:

https://www.cancer.org.au/iheard/is-burning-incense-linked-to-respiratory-cancers

I’ve burned incense for 30 years.. I appear to be fine.

I imagine the fumes from cars are more of a health risk than a few sticks of incense but we all regularly go outside and walk next to the road.

It can’t be that dangerous, the catholics are all still thriving!

I'm always a bit baffled by people who don't make the connection between incense and smoke tbh, obviously it's not good for your lungs to have any kind of smoke inside your house all the time! Passive smoke inhalation is a well known risk, it's why smoking in pubs was banned, and why you wouldn't smoke in the same room as children (well, I assume you wouldn't).

Smoke is smoke is smoke, it's not magically less harmful because it's from scented sticks rather than cigarettes It's also a well publicised health risk of indoor wood burning stoves.

Try not to panic, stop doing it and realise it will only increase chances by a tiny percentage.

if you want to ‘’make up” for the increased risk you can calculate the % risk increase on chat gpt and get rid of an equivalent risk like cutting out sausages and ham, or Teflon pans.

I sympathise with the anxiety, but this type of action may make you feel better and in control.

Inhaling smoky fragrance is never going to be healthy but the amount is so miniscule that it's really not going to so anything.

I burn it on my window sill it gets rid of mosquitoes vans smells lovely. It also is well ventilated then. Just use it near a window and you'll have zero things to worry about

Every time Lassie's owners went anywhere...

Everything is toxic if you really look into it. Even plug in air fresheners are horribly toxic and dangerous yet they are used widely. My dad used to burn insense in my childhood all day everyday and I was fine.

I do know that but given the hype and damage to British farming because most of the population had eaten the meat and that we were all going to get it. I've never met anyone with it, heard of anyone with it and now work for a funeral directors where I've not come across anyone who died from it...it was a brilliant scare story for the media which did huge economic and emotional damage to a community... just like the scare story that the op is panicking about

I've been regularly burning incense for 40 years. Before that my parents burnt it at home when I was a child. As far as I know I'm in very good health.

My Y1&Y2 kids appear to have been learning about quicksand at school because now they’re terrified of going to the beach. They don’t believe me when I say that in 47 years of life, I’ve never seen quicksand. And as for swans breaking arms…

🥲

And it's nothing to do with Asia being the major target market for cigarette companies, the rise of industrial pollution over the last 30 years or the increase in life expectancy hence cancer has more chance of developing? How on earth can anyone blame Joss sticks for an increase in cancer given its burnt the same way for centuries?

Where my DS works they make insense sticks, they wouldn’t make them if they were considered dangerous.

Smoke is not just Smoke

Smoker's Smoke has nicotine in

You burn wood and you burn plastic and one will have significantly more dangerous Smoke because of the fumes with it

Anyway, reminds me of the "It's all stuff that will give you cancer" song Russell Howard once did which included "being a woman, being a man"

Don't panic just stop doing it if you're worried. DH bought an air quality sensor because I was worried about the effect of having a log burner and a log burner isn't great but the thing went nuts whenever I lit a candle or incense stick! I just cut down on usage without panicking. The sensor is on the mantelpiece where the candles and incense are so I'm sure concentration is also a factor as they are very small!!

Because nobody ever manufactures anything dangerous at all 😆
There are allowable quantities of danger in many dangerous things. Doesn't mean they are harmless.

Exactly! My daughter works for Imperial Tobacco and my son is a Colombian drug lord. People need to stop being ridiculous.

What, all of them? I'm sure a few died.

All that knowledge we have and nowhere to use it!

What is a mosquito van?

Just use it near a window and you'll have zero things to worry about

That's one hell of a claim Maddy. My partner has stage 4 cancer - I'm off to buy some Nag Champa.

They leave quite an obvious, horrible fug in the air, it should've been pretty obvious you were all breathing something in. But like others have said, it's got to be at the lower end of harmful things to do in the home. Just don't burn any more now.

OP I have travelled extensively in Asia and pretty much every household burns incense all day every day. In some countries they burn incense sticks in every shop, restaurant, cafe too.

Not really sure what the panic is about?