BURNING incense, a popular cultural practice in Arabian Gulf
countries and elsewhere, generates indoor air pollutants that may cause
inflammation in human lung cells, say researchers in the Gillings School
of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, United States.
“Hazard assessment of United Arab Emirates (UAE) incense smoke” appears in the August 2013 issue of Science of the Total Environment. Rebecca Cohen, master’s student in environmental sciences and engineering (ESE), her adviser, Kenneth G. Sexton, now retired ESE research assistant professor and Karin B. Yeatts, research assistant professor of epidemiology, co-authored the study.
Previous studies, some by Yeatts and other UNC colleagues, have associated incense smoke with a number of health problems, including eye, nose, throat and skin irritation, respiratory symptoms, including asthma, headaches, exacerbation of cardiovascular disease and changes in lung-cell structure.
Indoor air pollution is an international health concern. The World Health Organisation estimates that more than one million people a year die from chronic obstructive respiratory disease (COPD), primarily a result of exposure to pollutants from cook stoves and open hearths. Burning incense releases similar pollutants, including carbon monoxide.
In the current study, the authors identified and measured the particles and gases emitted from two kinds of incense typically used in UAE homes. The testing was done over three hours, the typical timeframe during which incense is burned, in a specially designed indoor environmental chamber with a concentration of smoke that might be present in a typical UAE living room.
The researchers analysed both particulate concentrations and levels of gases such as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen and formaldehyde.
Human lung cells were placed in the chamber to expose them to the smoke, then incubated for 24 hours to allow particulates to settle and the cells to respond. The resulting inflammatory response, a hallmark of asthma and other respiratory problems, was similar to that of lung cells exposed to cigarette smoke.
“Hazard assessment of United Arab Emirates (UAE) incense smoke” appears in the August 2013 issue of Science of the Total Environment. Rebecca Cohen, master’s student in environmental sciences and engineering (ESE), her adviser, Kenneth G. Sexton, now retired ESE research assistant professor and Karin B. Yeatts, research assistant professor of epidemiology, co-authored the study.
Previous studies, some by Yeatts and other UNC colleagues, have associated incense smoke with a number of health problems, including eye, nose, throat and skin irritation, respiratory symptoms, including asthma, headaches, exacerbation of cardiovascular disease and changes in lung-cell structure.
Indoor air pollution is an international health concern. The World Health Organisation estimates that more than one million people a year die from chronic obstructive respiratory disease (COPD), primarily a result of exposure to pollutants from cook stoves and open hearths. Burning incense releases similar pollutants, including carbon monoxide.
In the current study, the authors identified and measured the particles and gases emitted from two kinds of incense typically used in UAE homes. The testing was done over three hours, the typical timeframe during which incense is burned, in a specially designed indoor environmental chamber with a concentration of smoke that might be present in a typical UAE living room.
The researchers analysed both particulate concentrations and levels of gases such as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen and formaldehyde.
Human lung cells were placed in the chamber to expose them to the smoke, then incubated for 24 hours to allow particulates to settle and the cells to respond. The resulting inflammatory response, a hallmark of asthma and other respiratory problems, was similar to that of lung cells exposed to cigarette smoke.
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