Incense may lead to increased risk of cancer
Categories: Teens & tweens, Health & safety, Alcohol & drugs
I've never liked the smell of incense and actually find it rather discomforting. When I was in high school, however, a lot of kids I knew liked burning it -- quite possibly as a means to cover up certain other odors they didn't want noticed by their parental units. It turns out, though, that they may have been better off taking their chances on getting caught.According to a new study, burning incense is linked to a "statistically significant higher risk of cancers of the upper respiratory tract." In fact, those who burned incense continuously during the day were eighty percent more likely to develop cancer in the respiratory tract. These findings remained even after taking other factors into consideration, such as tobacco use, diet, and alcohol intake.
"This association is consistent with a large number of studies identifying carcinogens in incense smoke," the researchers note, "and given the widespread and sometimes involuntary exposure to smoke from burning incense, these findings carry significant public health implications." I would say that if you've got a teen who likes to burn incense, you might want to let them know about this study.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
felix 8-27-2008 @ 2:24AM
As the article indicated, I hope that they follow up by looking at the types of incense used. Some incense definitely smells bad and sometimes feels bad. Personally, I prefer using a Tibetan incense used in certain prayers and meditations. It smells and "feels" cleaner than most incense you find in New Age-y shops.
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Tamyu 8-27-2008 @ 4:45AM
My opinion is that burning *anything* all the time, and breathing the smoke is not going to be good for you.
Even things that burn "clean" to the eye (no visible smoke) put things in the air that I wouldn`t want to inhale long term.
It seems a bit silly to single out incense, at least to me. Smoke inhalation is not going to be good for you, no matter where the smoke comes from.
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Don 8-27-2008 @ 8:17AM
The article did not account for marijuana use and smoking, because most of the people I know light incense in a bad attempt to hide the smell?
Also it only studied Chinese people living in Singapore, weren't they having issues with air quality overall in that part of the world?
It's nice to see a study on this kind of, but the article doesn't link to the original study and there can be several other factors that can aid in the development of lung cancer.
I can only imagine that incense does contribute to respiratory problems, human beings weren't meant to inhale burnt wood and fragrant whatever, I think the stuff stinks even unlit.
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