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Despite the fact that
over 25 years ago, the candle-making industry agreed with the Consumer
Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to voluntarily stop making
candles with lead-containing wicks, researchers have found that
many wicks still contain lead and may pose a significant and unrecognized
danger by causing air lead levels to rise to up to 36 times the
US EPA standard.
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Blood lead levels
as low as 0.43 micromol/L (10 micrograms/dL) in children can
result in developmental and behavioral problems, including lower
intelligence.
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Lead has been restricted
in paint and banned in gasoline and vinyl miniblinds in the
United States.
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Most physicians
and patients are probably unaware that household candlewicks
may still include lead as a stiffener.
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Different types
of candles were purchased from 12 different stores and tested
for lead.
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From the measured
lead content, researchers calculated the average 24-hour ambient
air lead levels that would result from burning these candles
for 3 hours.
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30% of the different
types of candles contained metallic wicks.
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Of the ones with
metallic wicks, 10% contained lead (3% of the total).
- Depending on the
lead content, the average 24-hour air lead concentrations were
calculated to range from 15.2 to 54.0 micrograms/m3, which is
10.1 to 36.0 times the US Environmental Protection Agency standard
of 1.5 micrograms/m3.
The authors stress that
"Physicians must warn patients that burning candles with lead-containing
wicks may cause lead poisoning and that there is no reliable way
to distinguish metallic candlewicks containing lead from those that
do not."
The authors also state
that families exposed to candles with metallic wicks should have
their blood lead levels checked.
Lastly, the authors maintain
that the CPSC should ban and recall all candles with wicks containing
lead. A petition for this purpose can be found by CLICKING
HERE.
Journal
of the American Medical Association July
12, 2000; 284: 180.
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