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.

• 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.

• Lead has been restricted in paint and banned in gasoline and vinyl miniblinds in the United States.

• Most physicians and patients are probably unaware that household candlewicks may still include lead as a stiffener.

• Different types of candles were purchased from 12 different stores and tested for lead.

• 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.

• 30% of the different types of candles contained metallic wicks.

• 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.