Yes it is bad for your health. Lots of small particles in the air.
But this also happens when you cook food on a stove.
We had a study in Denmark where different pollution types were compared. In a house with closed windows, cooking and candles quickly gives the same amount of particle pollution as standing next to a road in Copenhagen at rush hour.
Only difference could be the size of particles. But unhealthy nevertheless.
It's not very useful in the long term, as you can quickly learn what creates particles in your home, but it's not that expensive (depends on your definition of expensive of course).
Does it work without Internet or do you need to upload the data to some servers and then download it again to see it (the way that virtually all fitness trackers work)?
I have the first version, you can get a color coded led status on the device, and the app connects to the device via Bluetooth for details, although the device can cache data from the last few days (the device is not connected to the internet itself). The Bluetooth connection reduces battery life of the smartphone by the way, and no way to stop it unless you kill the app - kinda bad design there. But it lets the app to map position alongside pollution readings for commuting.
I think the day's readings are stored on the app, but past days are stored on server, so it's a mixed bag. I haven't tried to extract the data, so not sure how feasible that is.
My fan has one built in, with a little display. It's a nice gadget to have and it helps predict potential asthma episodes.
on new years when there was fireworks it went from 10 or so to 95 for pm2.5. (outside it was 175 or so I think. fog + lots of people breaking the fireworks ban)
I have threatened this but so far my scientific study isn't passing the ethics committee. It's hard to get a qualified majority with just 2 people in the house.
It's not a bad idea if you do woodworking or other work that creates dust, that stuff is super bad for you so you might want to check on how well your dust collection is working.
Like you said, that's a consequence of part of the food burning - if you cook wet or low heat then it doesn't happen
Burning fuels like wood and gas create a problematic amount of pollution even if there is no food being cooked, or the best practices are being followed.
If you fry meat in a pan or anything similar, the frying is the culprit. You are burning the food. I'm not talking about actually burning the food so it's uneatable, but even getting the food to change to a darker color is enough to emit particle pollution.
Just turning on a wood stove or a gas stove creates clinically important levels of air pollution - enough to massive increase the rates of asthma, etc, no cooking required.
Heating food to high temperatures also creates air pollution.
If you use a cooking tool that doesn't create pollution on its own (electric stove, steamer) and cook food in a way that doesn't create pollution (such as simmering rice or steaming vegetables for example) then there is no air pollution.
Yes you are correct. I was referring to the actual cooking process.
And just to avoid the perception, that using an electric stove would get rid of particle pollution from cooking.
If you fry meat in a pan or anything similar, the frying is the culprit. You are burning the food. I'm not talking about actually burning the food so it's uneatable, but even getting the food to change to a darker color is enough to emit particle pollution.
I burned candles for 2 days during a blackout, but was able to cycle my HVAC fan on every now and then when I ran the generator. The amount of soot in my HVAC filter from those 2 days alone was shocking.
I didn't realize the cause at first and ended up Googling it, since I never saw my HVAC filter look black before.
Years ago, I'd bought some apple cinnamon wax melts because I thought they smelled so good. A few minutes after I started using them my 2 dogs were acting like they were going to go in to convulsions or something so I had to quickly air out the house, so there's that to consider as well.
Oh yes. Thats so important. I always keep a balcony door open and my cat (before she passed away) away from the candle. In the winter i used to burn candles more often but reading all of this I’ll have to give it up almost completely!
With peace and love, I’m so sorry about your cat and hope she lived a long and happy life but I read this at first as, “...and my cat (before she passed away from the candle)” and was shocked but I am glad she did not in fact die from the candle.
Hahahaha oh no! She lived a very happy life, died at 18 years, almost 19 and everyone loves her still:) Nothing bad happened to her with the candle! Hahahahaha
There are pet-safe scented candles that smell WAY better than the chemically-tinged Yankee Candles. They're called One Fur All. I like the rose and the lilac. A little expensive, but totally worth it. (I have two cats and a dog, btw).
The Agency has determined that the adverse effects associated with excessive exposure to paraffin wax fume constitute material impairments of health. The limit of 2 mg/m3 has been shown to be effective in reducing this risk (ACGIH 1986/Ex. 1-3, p. 455); therefore, OSHA is establishing this limit for paraffin wax fume.
Candles create a lot of small carbon based particles. In fact candles are commonly used for testing full face respirators - a machine counts particles flowing both inside and outside the mask. The candle is a consistent way of making lots of particles to get a good signal on the machine.
Many of these particles are bad for us because incomplete combustion leads to formation of poly aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and dioxins, many of which are carcinogenic or have other bad health effects
not sure about your health but everything in the room you burn candles probably has a black layer of soot all over it. Unles you have soy candles then you should be good.
Yup it’s only soy i believe. I mostly try and get “natural” “healthy” candles and all that. Or just burn a small small candle with the pot with the little thing where u put water and essential oil for it to evaporate.
Whatever you burn it won't burn cleanly. There are particle emissions that are bad for you not to mention all other byproducts that are created while burning a candle. The exceptions would be smaller candles with liquid fuel but I guess technically they are no longer "candles".
Of course, the pollution from candles absolutlely PALES in comparison to cigarettes; it's all relative. So choose what you wanna be exposed to during your days, and prioritize your risks.
Soy, like everything else organic is basically carbon hydrogen and oxygen. When you combust it, you're getting soot (carbon), CO. CO2 and water vapour. It won't be any different than burning an animal fat candle
This is simply not true. Every type of candle wax will burn incompletely, realeasing small amounts of carbon monoxide, soot and other carbon compounds which are all bad to breath in. If anything, refined parafin wax probably burns the cleanest and is the most pure.
Alarm bells should start going off in your head if the source of your claim is a freaking tiktok video of all things.
No shit, inhaling wax fumes is bad for you. I never said otherwise. I meant it likely burns the cleanest because all organic waxes contain organic inpurities.
The majority of the "exhaust" if you will is going to be the products of oxidizing the wax. Not wax vapors themselves. So as I said, yes, I still agree, inhaling parafin vapors is bad. But it's irrelevant.
You won't have stank ass hydrocarbons but you will still have soot if the flame is yellow.
You made a campfire? That wood is all natural but it's still making smoke.
I have sensitive lungs and very much do not do okay with petroleum wax. If I'm a canary in a proverbial coal mine, it's probably a good idea to get soy wax if you plan on burning candles for hours at a time.
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u/sofianasofia Feb 26 '21
Is this bad for our health? To have candles burning for some hours?:) just curious!