A team of scientists from the South China University of Technology in Guangzhou (China) has carried out a study to find out if the use of incense in places with poor ventilation or closed is harmful to health .
To do this, they analyzed the smoke of incense of two types or variants, incense with agar and with sandalwood, two of the most common elements in the manufacture of these products. The researchers examined the effects of incense smoke on salmonella strains and hamster ovary cells and compared them to the effect of tobacco smoke.
The experiment determined that incense smoke was potentially more toxic than tobacco smoke, as 99% of the smoke contained fine and ultrafine particles of very harmful chemicals. (which are inhaled through the air and are trapped in the lungs). Thus, the smoke contained a wide range of cytotoxic and genotoxic agents, even more than cigarette smoke , as well as mutagenic components, all of them related to the development of cancer .
“There is a need for greater knowledge and regulation of the health risks associated with the use of incense indoors,” explains Rong Zhou, leader of the study.
Are all incenses equally harmful? According to the researchers, more studies are required to confirm whether these conclusions are repeated in all varieties of incense.
The study has been published in Springer’s Journal Environmental Chemistry Letters .
