Incense

Incense! Ah, I can still smell the sweet fragrance from my old college dorm hallways. There were two guys that were always burning incense - behind closed and locked doors. But even though I knew why it was burning, I did enjoy the smell. Perhaps the memory of college life is what causes me to remember fondly the aroma wafting in the hallways.

But incense is not so much a part of life now. I'm not around a lot of people who use it. But I do know that some smokers will burn it in their homes to help cover up the smell of the cigarette smoke. Is that a good idea though? I mean, they already have a ton of smoke, why add to it. Well, researchers were curious about the same thing and published their findings in Environmental Health Perspectives. They wondered if burning incense would increase the risk for lung cancer.

Burning incense is known to have a large amount of pollutants, of which some are known or suspected to cause lung cancer. Okay, so what do you think they found? Well, the burning incense at home didn't increase the risk of lung cancer in non-smokers, but it did increase the risk in smokers. In fact, they describe the relationship as a synergistic one. To complicate this effect, the researchers also discovered that if radon was present in the home, along with the incense burning and cigarette smoking, the risk was even higher.

So what is the take home message? 1) Stop smoking, then you won't need the incense. 2) If you continue to smoke, at least stop burning the incense. 3) If you won't stop smoking or burning incense, then move to a house that doesn't have radon. But if you're going to go to all the trouble, you might as well just stop smoking, it will be easier and cheaper in the long run.

Cigarette Smoke

As if we needed proof that tobacco companies could care less about their customers. First, we learn they controlled the levels of nicotine in cigarettes to keep their customers coming back for more. Lawsuits were everywhere and "big tobacco" became associated with the dark underbelly of big business.

There has been speculation for some time now, that smoking has become predominantly a poor man's habit. Oh sure, there are lots of rich people who smoke, but the lionshare of their customer base are of lower socio-economic means. In fact, this could be directly correlated with the level of education achieved by the worldwide smoking community, which is pretty low.

For a long time now, we've known that the more education a person has, the less likely they are to either smoke in the first place or continue to smoke without attempting a cessation program. The journal Public Health evaluated cigarette emissions from a variety of cigarettes which could be purchased in 10 different countries. They wanted to see if the tobacco producers modified their products based on the overall economic standing of the country and its residents. The study showed what you would expect: the higher a country's income, the better and cleaner engineered the cigarettes were and hence, the poorer and less educated you were, the more toxic the cigarette.

So before you buy that pack of cigarettes from a poor country, you might want to think twice. It very likely has many times more the cancer causing agents than your standard US pack.

It's a shame smoking has become such a curse on the lower socio-economic citizens of this world. The poor and uneducated just don't seem to have a chance. Add to this that smoking is such a vital part of their culture, passed on from parents to children. I'm not a real advocate for government telling business what to do, but in this case of the public health, why wouldn't they step into the fight and require more from the producers or at least help educate the poor? If for no other reason than so they can sleep at night.

To keep this from becoming a political conversation, I'll stop there. For those who dislike tobacco control programs, remember this blog entry and ask yourself who is looking out for the little guy?