It’s hard to resist those BOGO sales on giant three-wick candles. They smell amazing, look pretty in your house, and can be extremely comforting. But what is floating in the air once you light that wick?
Welcome to Fatal Conveniences™.
Scented candles are a $2 Billion industry. But they’re slowly poisoning us.
I wanted to do an episode on scented candles because I know how dangerous synthetic fragrances are, in any capacity. But as I dove into the research, I discovered so many more reasons to be concerned. It’s not just the chemical fragrances, guys. There’s so many problematic ingredients in these things.
The toxins, PHAs and synthetic dyes and fragrances in candles are messing with your body. These indoor air pollutants affect your hormones, your lungs and even your skin. But it’s not just you! Your kids and pets are breathing in this junk, too. And the agencies in charge of regulating these products are really letting us down. No surprise there.
I burn candles daily. But I don’t use the heavily scented paraffin (petroleum) based ones found at the big box stores. There's plenty of safe, natural alternatives that give you the ambience without the toxins. Before you flick that match or spark that lighter, listen up.
Other info in this Fatal Conveniences™ segment:
[00:02:02] A brief history of candle use
[00:03:45] Chemical derived fragrances
[00:05:20] How scented candles affect human reproduction
[00:07:05] What’s lurking in the wicks
[00:09:03] PAHs and why you should be concerned
[00:12:50] Safe candle alternatives
[00:15:00] Natural odor eliminators
More information to learn about this subject:
PubMed: Lead in Candle Emissions
Scented Candles Can Release Toxic Chemicals into Your Home
Scented Candles Increase the Risk of Bladder Cancer
How to Make Your Own Natural Room Spray
Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Fatal Convenience Intro
Darin: It’s that time of the week for another fatal convenience. This is a bite-size segment that addresses some of society’s fatal conveniences and the steps you can take to avoid becoming a victim of them. I define fatal conveniences as the things we may be doing because the world we live in makes us believe we have to, tap water, shampoo, sunglasses, food. I dive into the hidden truths behind some of our everyday choices that could not only be harming us but even killing us, so let’s dive in.
[00:00:41] Fatal Convenience - Candles
Darin: Hey, everybody, welcome to The Fatal Convenience episode. I’m going to guide you through another fatal convenience to rid yourself of, to change your habit towards, and to liberate you from potentially harming you. This fatal convenience is brought to you by the candle makers. Damn those candle makers. What are you doing? This one I was going after originally, the scented part of it. And then I start peeling all these things. Of course, I already knew that it was paraffin, which is from the waist of the petroleum industry, which is already gnarly. But then it just got all these other aspects to it and I’m just like, whoa, candles be gone, switching them out for a healthy version. So here’s the thing. They are a huge indoor air pollutant. They’re giving off a lot of chemicals, heavy metals, and it’s from oil. So these are dangerous, I would absolutely say.
[00:02:02] A brief history of candle use
Darin: So a tiny bit of history on my move off of that because we don’t need to dig into that but largely, they say they were invented 5,000 years ago. When I say that they literally are using candles for light and everything else to illuminate whatever they had, their buildings, their homes, essentially all of that stuff. And then if you look at 3,000 BC, it’s really the Egyptians man, they just really created a lot of stuff. They were using wick into those candles. And then that was very pragmatic for them. They mostly were using beeswax because that’s what they had available to them.
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