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Smoke in Churches Unhealthy

Posted Aug 21, 2006 at 06:45PM by Myra M. Listed in: Self Well-being Tags: Stephan Weber, Theo de Kok
Ó

Church


Smoke coming out from incense and candles is said to be harmful to your health.

Atmospheric scientist Stephan Weber from the University of Duisberg-Essen in Essen, Germany conducted a study at the St. Engelbert Church in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, where church staff regularly burn candles during mass and also incense on some holidays. Incense burners and candles were lit for services at midnight on December 25th, until the morning of the following day, as well as during New Year's Eve. Only candles were burned during regular services.

Basically, he measured certain particles from the candle and incense smoke that are considered harmful to our lungs, heart and arteries.

To aid in his study, Weber placed two devices in the church that enabled him to measure the air quality in the church for 13 days since Christmas Eve. "The equipment measured concentrations of particles up to 10 micrometers in diameter (PM10) and also those 1 µm or smaller (PM1) ..."

And what did he find out? The concentration of both particles practically doubled during services, while "Simultaneous use of incense and candles raised the concentration of PM10 to about seven times that recorded between services, and PM1 reached about nine times its background abundance."

Man, that spells bad news to those that have lung problems. It seems that most people who get to inhale these stuff during church services take in a lot of bad particles in their body.

In a similar study done in a Dutch chapel, it was found out that "particles in the air there formed 10 times as many free radicals as airborne particulates collected along busy roadways do, de Kok's group reported 2 years ago."

The said study was conducted by Theo de Kok of Maastricht University in the Netherlands. He adds that even a "relatively short exposure" would lead to health problems such as shortness of breath for asthmatics.

But we're not saying that we shouldn't go to church. Incense and candles could also be used at home, so frequent users should be wary of the side effects. Meanwhile, maybe some authorities could take a look at these studies too, and take corresponding action.

[Via Science News Online] Permalink  |   Email this  |   Linking Blogs   |   Digg It!

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1 Comments


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   by bull (Unregistered) - 2006-08-21
 » i dont think so
NO way, its all bull. Nothing bad has happend so why worry?



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