Incense burning is a common ritual in Asian and Middle Eastern countries. In Taiwan, many families have altars to worship their ancestors, and they will light incense to convey their thoughts to the ancestors on weekdays. However, what impact does this custom have on our health?
People started to reflect on the custom of burning incense, mainly due to the large number of mixed ingredients in the incense (please see the previous article for details: 【Reminder for Tomb Sweeping on Qing-ming Festival】), which produce Aerosol/particulate matter, CO, CO2, NO2, SO2, and various organic volatiles during combustion. These substances do have some health hazards, and their effects cannot be ignored especially under long-term exposure.
Except for the more intuitive health hazards of incense burning -Allergic diseases and Respiratory diseases, there are actually more potential risks under long-term exposure. For adults,studiesshowed that, burning incense has a significant correlation with cardiovascular disease mortality. Also, it was found bystudies, thatincense burning is associated with increased incidences of certain types of lung cancer.
Moreover, incense burning may have a more profound health impact on children. In addition to allergic diseases and respiratory diseases, earlier exposure may lead to a larger increase in the incidence of cancer caused by a larger cumulative dose. Besides, there are more health impacts that have been less noticed in the past- Neurobehavioral development in children.
From the beginning of pregnancy,studieshave found that exposure to incense burning during pregnancy will causeLower birth weight and smaller head circumference of the baby. For children after birth, there are also large-scale Taiwanesestudiesshow that the habit of indoor incense burning is significantly associated withDelay of Large Motor Development of children(Including two indicators: assisted walking and stable walking).
In summary, although there were only few studies that specifically discussed the health impact of burning incense; however, the results of the above-mentioned studies all showed thatIncense burning is harmful to human health. In addition, more studies have also indirectly reminded the health hazards of incense burning (such as studies on suspended particulates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which will be produced when incense is burned). Therefore, we believe that if ancestors know there health impacts of incense burning, they willSupport the concept of reducing incense burning. As a substitution, let's worship ancestors with bare hands!
〈The author is former Attending Physician in National Taiwan University Hospital, and Master of Science from National Taiwan University〉