Health experts warn adults and children with allergies and asthma may suffer significant health problems from burning incense.
In many cultures, it is common to burn incense for religious and cultural practices, including meditations, celebrations and spiritual and ancestral worship.
However, a new medically challenging case was presented at this year’s American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting in Boston in the US. “Our patient was an 87-year-old woman with history of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), on oxygen therapy, who presented with unexplained shortness of breath,” says Gomeo Lam, BA, lead author on the paper. “A detailed history revealed daily incense burning.
We recommended she stop burning incense, which the patient did not want to do as burning joss stick incense daily allowed her to express homage and veneration for ancestors.
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