If You Use Scented Candles In Your House You May Want To Stop Right NOW! The Reason? I Had No Idea
#1
Scented candles, on the surface, seem to make sense. You not only get an illuminated area, but you receive a nice aroma that get's added to the air. Whether it's cherry blossom scent or a forestry wintergreen, you can really add some interesting scents to your environment with scented candles.
#2
But did you ever stop to wonder, where those scents are really coming from? As in, what is exactly making it smell like a cherry scented room? While the scent may smell like natural cherries, but the actual scented ingredients could be far from natural. Matter of fact, one ingredient is actually extremely harmful to human health. A study was carried out by Professor Alastair Lewis of the National Centre for Atmospheric Science at the University of York. What he found was shocking! Limonene is a common ingredient to give off that scented aroma. But when burned, it changes into high levels of toxic Formaldehyde!
#3
Most often you can find limonene in the citrus-scented candles as it provides that fake lemon scent. While it's generally safe, even in foods, when it is burned and released into the air the molecules change into the Formaldehyde. And since we are generally lighting up our scented candles in closed off rooms that will capture and hold in the scent, then this means we are essentially trapping ourselves into toxic tightly sealed Formaldehyde chambers! Long term health problems can easily occur from this, damaging our respiratory tracts, causing sore throats, nosebleeds, coughs, stinging and burning eyes and more.
#4
If you are using these candles, crack a window open so as to not trap the toxic fumes all around you. Of course the best and wisest thing to do is to stop using scented candles which contain this ingredient. You would think this will eventually change as candle makers will themselves wise up and stop producing candles that contain this ingredient, but until then spread the word on just how dangerous these candles are.
