Incense and cancer. (Damn)

theist · August 26, 2008

A recent study conducted and presented by the researchers of the department of epidemiology from Copenhagen’s Statens Serum Institut, shows that there is a connection between the exposure to burning incense and airway cancers. The study was led by Dr. Jeppe T. Friborg and demanded a long term involvement from the entire research team.

"This association is consistent with a large number of studies identifying carcinogens in incense smoke," Friborg's team writes, "and given the widespread and sometimes involuntary exposure to smoke from burning incense, these findings carry significant public health implications." According to the results, the long-term exposure to the incense smoke leads to certain respiratory tract, lung, tongue and mouth cancers.

The incenses are usually made from a series of plant materials such as tree bark, roots, resins, flowers or essential oils. While burning, these materials are known to produce potentially carcinogen substances such as carbonyls, benzene and hydrocarbons (PAHs).

This is not the first study targeting the effects of inhaled incense, but so far none of them managed to provide conclusive information. What sets this research apart from the others is the long term observation process on healthy people, which provided all the needed data to help the researchers reach the firm conclusion.

The study involved the careful observation of about 60,000 Chinese residents of Singapore. They were recruited between 1993 and 1998 and followed until 2005. At the time of their selection they were all cancer-free and had to answer several questions about their diet, lifestyle habits and offer details about their exposure to incense – close to 75 percent were frequent incense users.

The results after more than eight years of tests listed 325 upper respiratory tract cancers and 821 lung cancers, and the frequent incense users appeared twice as exposed to developing squamous cell upper respiratory tract cancers including nasal/sinus, tongue, mouth and laryngeal. The risk appears to be the same for smokers and non-smokers. There are still many more aspects of the issue that demand attention, such as the upcoming analysis which will be focused on whether different types of incense are associated with different degrees of cancer risk.

"Given that our results are backed by numerous experimental studies showing that incense is a powerful producer of particulate matter and that incense smoke contains carcinogenic substances, I believe incense should be used with caution," said Dr. Jeppe Friborg.

The news were quickly acknowledged by many, and Dr. Norman Edelman, chief medical officer of “The American Lung Association” explained for US News & World Report that incense exposure will be added as a risk factor on its lists.

Even though is it considered far less dangerous than smoking, people should try to avoid it as much as possible, as there are many more ways of keeping the house perfumed without worrying about these risks. The problem is that the incense burning trend is extremely popular all over the world and it might take a while for everyone to understand the risks and keep their places incense-free.

suchandra · August 26, 2008

The study involved the careful observation of about 60,000 Chinese residents of Singapore. They were recruited between 1993 and 1998 and followed until 2005. At the time of their selection they were all cancer-free and had to answer several questions about their diet, lifestyle habits and offer details about their exposure to incense – close to 75 percent were frequent incense users.

This is surely a reasonable research, however, there're so many different ways how to make insence and so many different ingredients what the study probably did not cover. Additionally they use in China so many chemical fertilizers and pesticide what also could enter the manufacture of incense.

On the other hand there should be an import ban in case of questionable incense ingredients.

Dipped Incense Sticks - Dipped sticks are made with incense "blanks" which are long, thin wooden sticks that have a combustible powder coating such as charcoal or wood. The incense blanks are then dipped in either essential oils or synthetic fragrance oils, then left to dry. A variety of sources indicate that the actual incense blanks may be made with inferior pressed wood and glues that are toxic when burned. So even if using essential oils to make dipped incense, the final product, when burned, may still be toxic. There, however, may be rare sources of good quality blanks. If you know of any, please contact AromaWeb.

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Hand Rolled Incense Sticks - Hand rolled incense is especially popular in India. The appearance of hand rolled incense is similar to that of dipped incense sticks, but the process of making the sticks is different. Hand rolled incense sticks, especially those from India, are said to be more natural than dipped incense sticks. Like with most incense, however, the handcrafters or manufacturers do not include a complete list of ingredients on their packaging, so the buyer must beware.

The buyer must beware of the ingredients, sounds of course asked too much of laymen who don't know anything of long-term effects of the different substances used to make an incense.

My alternative is to use olibanum, what was used throughout the antiquity and is purely made of tree resin.

At topic what actually real trustworthy brahmanas should have taken up long ago to make a research work and find the original procedure how to make 100% nontoxic incense.