It rains heavily during the Qing-Ming Festival. During that time, every family returns to their nostalgic hometown to worship their ancestors, and visits relatives and friends they have not seen for a long time. In a society where technology is advanced and people are increasingly alienated, it is a good chance to built the connections between people again. Good opportunity to start. However, during the Qing-Ming Festival, are there any health risks we should be aware of? Who needs to be more careful?

Generally speaking, the sources of health hazards during the Qing-Ming Festival are as follows:

【Potential Risks of Tomb Sweeping in Qing-Ming Festival】

Mosquito bites

The Qing-Ming Festival is in summer, and mosquitoes are gradually infesting the field at this time. Many traditional ancestor worship places are between mountains and forests, which will increase the risk of mosquito bites.Mosquitoes, hard ticks, chiggers, are the most well-known pathogen carriers, and related diseases are as follows:Dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, Lyme disease, tsutsugamushi diseasecan be calculated.

During worshiping the ancestors, It is recommended that, people should wear light-colored long-sleeved clothes, long boots, and apply a suitable anti-mosquito agent. After leaving the grass, you should take a bath and change all clothes as soon as possible, to avoid carrying bugs on your clothes and bringing them home.

Food poisoning

There will always be offerings when offering ancestor worship, and these offerings are often placed at room temperature for a certain period of time. If ancestor worship is outdoors, the temperature will be higher.In the high temperature environment in summer, the growth rate of germs will increase significantly, and it may double in tens of minutes. If you eat the worship offerings after worshiping, the chance of food poisoning will also increase.

Considering the ambient temperature, the indoor ancestor-worshiping environment will be better than the outdoors. But the place of the ancestors' tombs may be difficult to change. Therefore, it is recommended to start with the following points:

1. The preparation of the offerings should be done with sanitary checks to reduce the amount of bacteria carried by the offerings.
2. Reduce the exposure time of the offerings in high temperature environments. In the outdoor environment, a small shed or insect-proof net cover can be considered to reduce direct sunlight or insect sticking.
3. After the worshiping, the offerings should be heated completely before eating.
4. Pay attention to any symptoms of discomfort and seek medical assistance in due course.

Incense burning

This is probably the least mentioned potential health hazard. After all, incense burning is a very important link in traditional culture. But incense burning does have some impacts on human health.

According to information fromthis research, it can be seen that the traditional fragrance ingredients include grass and wood powder, spices, adhesives, and bamboo cores. After burning, it will produce aerosols, CO, CO₂, NO₂, SO₂, and various organic volatiles (such as: benzene, toluene, xylene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, etc.). But as mentioned in the previous article【Toxicokinetics】, when discussing health hazards, we need to understand the amount of exposure dose. If we simply discuss the exposure from incense burning during the Qing-Ming Festival, it is a relatively high amount of short-term exposure, which usually causes acute health hazards, such as:Allergic diseases, Respiratory diseases, As for the health hazards involved in longer-term exposure, please seeThis article.

Therefore, in recent years, Taiwan has gradually promotedpolicy for incense burning reduction. In Xing-Tian Temple and Long-Shan Temple in Taipei, you can find that there is only ONE pillar of incense burning in the main furnace as a representative. We suggest that you can also consider it when you worship the ancestors -to reduce the amount of incense used. The regard is most important!

After understanding the above-mentioned health risks, we can know which populations need to be more careful!

Considering the risk of acute infectious diseases and food poisoning, infants, pregnant women, the elderly, patients with chronic diseases or immune insufficiencyshould be more careful. if considering the risks of allergic diseases and respiratory diseases that may be caused by exposure to incense burning, patients with a history of allergies and chronic respiratory diseasesshould pay special attention. It is recommended to bring emergency medicines with you. We hope everyone can worship their ancestors at ease and reunite in a healthy way!