Reducing Air Pollution Emissions from Burning Incense with the Addition of Calcium Carbonate

Abstract

A laboratory-scale study was performed to quantify the pollutant reduction effects from burning incense with the addition of CaCO 3 . Many studies have investigated the effects of burning incense on the quality of surrounding air, focusing primarily on particulate matter (PM) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). However, the reduction of PM and PAHs from burning incense has received little attention. In our past study, we investigated nine types of commercially available incense and found that incense with a higher CaCO 3 content had lower PM and PAH emissions factors. Five to thirty percent of CaCO 3 was added to Liao and Chen incense powder, which are popular incense materials. The experimental results indicate that the reductions in the emissions of PM and PAHs from burning incense increased with along with amount of CaCO 3 additive. Mean PM reductions for 5.0%, 10.0%, 20.0%, and 30.0% CaCO 3 were 11 ± 2%, 15 ± 3%, 27 ± 1%, and 41 ± 3%, respectively. Mean particle-phase PAHs (P-PAHs) reductions were 9 ± 9%, 15 ± 5%, 22 ± 1%, and 28 ± 1%, respectively, and 5 ± 6%, 21 ± 1%, 21 ± 3%, and 30 ± 2% for total benzo[a]pyrene equivalent concentration (total BaP eq ), respectively. This study was performed to quantify the reduction of PM and PAH emissions from burning incense with increasing amounts of CaCO 3 . The findings of this study may serve as a guide to producing safer and less-polluting incense.

Green Worship: The Effects of Devotional and Behavioral Factors on Adopting Electronic Incense Products in Religious Practices

“…In this context, relevant studies have investigated various approaches to incense-related health issues, such as smoke emission reduction [6,13] and ventilation conditions improvement [14]. Though recent scholars have studied the public actions of risk behavior reduction (e.g., tobacco control) [2,39,40], the individual’s perceptual reaction to incense burning receives little attention, which makes it difficult to determine relevant policies.…”

“…With the rising awareness of health issues, nevertheless, studies have indicated that exposure to incense smoke may be linked to carcinogen-related health issues [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. Though many scholars have exerted efforts to reduce health risks involved in incense burning, such as smoke emission reduction [6,13] and ventilation conditions improvement [14], the behavioral interventions have received little research attention.…”