Are Candles Bad for You?

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There is absolutely nothing better than finishing cleaning your house, lighting a delicious candle, and curling up on the couch with a cozy blanket. Especially as fall approaches, this is top of my mind in the evenings. 

However, candles are full of synthetic chemicals, including fragrance, and there is a lot of buzz around whether they are bad for you or not. We’ve already discussed why fragrance negatively impacts health, but let’s explore a little deeper the downsides of candles. You can find so many articles claiming candles are bad for you and many others that claim they aren’t. What’s the truth?

Introduction

All about the wax

Does the scent matter?

What about the wick?

Summary / TLDR

First, I’ll start off by saying that I’m mostly referring to paraffin wax candles throughout this article. I will identify when I am talking about other wax types, but if I don’t, I’m talking about paraffin. This is also what most people claim is the dangerous part of the candle, which is why I’m going to focus a lot on it. 

There are two main parts of candles that I want to focus on in our exploration of safety today, with a minor third: wax, scent, and wick.

Wax

Candles can come in a few different wax types, but the most common is paraffin wax. Paraffin wax is a petroleum byproduct, which is a lot of the reason people have concerns about toxicity. I think a lot of the concern can be boiled down to a research study that stated that burning paraffin wax candles emits benzene and toluene, which are understood to be toxic and carcinogenic, and therefore paraffin candles are toxic and have negative impacts on human health. 

Now, let’s start off by reviewing the two offending chemicals in question. They’re both nasty, without a doubt. 

Toluene disrupts your central nervous system, which can cause a variety of negative impacts but suffice it to say it’s definitely not good for you. It’s also just very irritating to the skin, eyes, and respiratory system. It is universally advised to avoid toluene. 

Similarly, it is universally advised to avoid benzene. Benzene is a known carcinogen and has been linked to a couple different and serious forms of cancer. Unfortunately, benzene is a pretty common chemical and can be found in a lot of products. Luckily, use of benzene has decreased over the last couple of decades and, because awareness of its negative health impacts, most products you run into don’t contain benzene. 

It is true that paraffin wax contains both toluene and benzene. One thing that’s important to keep in mind is that there are different kinds of paraffin wax and the kind used in candles is generally very pure and food-grade. Any reputable candle company is using fully refined paraffin wax, which is heavily refined to reduce the amount of oil (what carries things like toluene and benzene) to around half a percent or less. It’s the same paraffin wax used to coat some food items. 

In case you didn’t know, candles are not the only thing in your life using paraffin wax. In fact, it is incredibly common, if not unavoidable, that several of your grocery store staples are coated in fully refined, food-grade paraffin wax (the same as that used to make candles). This is done with cheeses, candies, and several fruits, including apples and pears. The wax serves mostly to keep moisture in products that tend to lose it quickly and therefore go bad quickly. 

Don’t freak out about this. This has been tested and tested and it is very safe. There’s no need to scrape the wax coating off of your produce. Like I said, this is food-grade and has been shown to be safe. It is actually designed to mimic the natural wax that fruits have, which is washed off during processing. 

You may be wondering how this South Carolina study on candle wax found that paraffin wax emits toluene and benzene if the same substance is used to coat my apple and is considered completely safe. There could be a couple reasons for this. One is that we don’t know where the researchers got the candles they used and what kind of paraffin wax they are. Additionally, the study was not extremely rigorous, which is why it hasn’t been able to be reproduced with the same results (always a red flag). To be honest, the study reads somewhat like a college project to me. At best, the researchers took the results they got and carried their conclusions and implications far past what the study design supports. 

It has been shown time and time again by other studies that the levels of toluene and benzene that are emitted by candles when they are burned are not enough to cause any harm.

Some sources say that paraffin candles emit low levels of formaldehyde and soot higher than other wax candles, but most credible sources state that, again, any emission of VOCs with paraffin candles is far below the allowed limit and not going to cause harm. 

Now, you may want to completely avoid any exposure to these chemicals at all. That is totally cool and totally your choice! I do personally prefer to limit/eliminate my exposure to these chemicals. When I can make other choices, I do. Additionally, it’s never good for your health to breathe in particulates in general, whether toxic or nontoxic. It’s best to keep air clean from matter that doesn’t have to be there. Candles definitely release compounds into the air so it is always a good choice to limit your use of them. 

Additionally, even if candles are not “toxic,” some people do experience negative side effects when burning them such as respiratory irritation and headaches. 

That being said, it’s perfectly safe to light up a candle if that’s what you’re in the mood for, especially in moderation and in well ventilated spaces. As with any airborne compounds, ventilation is key to clearing the air from toxic and undesirable compounds. So yeah, if you burn a candle for a week straight in an unventilated room, that’s probably not good for you. But if your AC turns on sometimes, you're able to open your windows, or you have an air purifier, then you should be fine. 

One note on different wax types, there have been various studies that show that soy and beeswax candles may emit less soot than paraffin candles, but it’s possible that these results come from other sources like wick than just the wax. And if you are interested in eliminating any exposure to the toxic chemicals we’ve discussed, soy and beeswax are a great option since they do not contain them.

It is generally recommended that individuals with asthma, allergies, respiratory issues, and older adults and babies avoid exposure to candle smoke because their respiratory systems tend to be more sensitive to irritation, which candles, smoke, and airborne particulates tend to cause in these populations. 

Scent

Another consideration for candles is whether it is safe to burn scented candles or not. As we’ve discussed before, synthetic fragrances are not the best for your health, particularly because it’s difficult to know what they are made of and a decent amount of synthetic fragrances contain phthalates (LINK), which are terrible for you. There’s a lot of talk around avoiding synthetic fragrance in the holistic health and natural wellness world as well as rising concerns about their role as endocrine disruptors. The research on this topic is somewhat muddy and I haven’t done a deep dive on it but plan to soon.

There are fragrances that do not contain phthalates and are likely to be much more safe. Again, it’s difficult to know what companies use phthalate free fragrances, but these companies are also more likely to be transparent about their ingredients so you may be able to figure this out with some poking around websites. These fragrances may still contain other endocrine disruptors.

Some companies opt for “natural” fragrances such as essential oils. This is often fine, but essential oils tend to not hold up well with heat so the scent can be difficult to maintain and you are unlikely to get the same aromatherapeutic effects as you would with dispersal methods like water diffusion. 

As with the general note about certain populations avoiding candles due to respiratory system irritation, the same applies to avoiding fragrances and scented candles. 

One other note that is somewhat relevant to scent, but hardly… is that you may want to avoid candles with additives in the wax, especially botanicals. This is because they are a significant fire hazard and they also don’t do anything besides make the candle pretty. Not really worth the risk. However, pillar candles with pressed flowers on the outside layer of wax are likely okay as they don’t tend to burn. 

Wick

There are also some concerns about the type of wicks used in candles. Most wicks are cotton or the now very popular wood wicks. However, because cotton can be floppy, some cotton wicks are “cored,” which means they contain some kind of metal on the inside to help keep them rigid. This used to be done with lead before awareness of lead toxicity was wide. 

Lead wicks are now banned in the US and they haven’t been popular in candle making anyway for a long time. Most cored wicks use zinc or tin. While these can theoretically emit low levels of lead, the concentrations are nearly if not totally undetectable, making it not a real concern. 

Summary / TLDR

Though paraffin wax candles have had quite the round of publicity over the last ten years or so that they are toxic and bad for your health, this isn’t really true. Paraffin wax does contain small amounts of toluene and benzene (known carcinogens), but the concentrations in the kind of wax used to make candles (food-grade, ultra refined paraffin wax that is also used to coat your apples) is so incredibly low, it is not going to cause damage. 

Studies have shown that burning candles emit these chemicals and even some studies state candles emit formaldehyde, but again, the concentrations are far below the allowable limits from several governing bodies and based on the evidence available do not pose significant health risks. 

That being said, a lot of us prefer to avoid any exposure to these toxins. Toxin exposure can be cumulative and there is rising concern over the impact of even the smallest levels of these toxins on our endocrine systems. I don’t have the capacity to incorporate that argument into this article but hope to in the future. It is definitely a legitimate concern.

If you prefer to ensure ZERO exposure to things like benzene, toluene, formaldehyde, and fragrance, it’s probably best not to burn candles. Besides, there are many other options for bringing your favorite scents into your home. Additionally, if you are someone with respiratory system issues, of older age, or that has a young baby at home, it’s best to avoid burning candles, as they are more likely to cause irritation in these populations. 

If you DO want to burn a cozy candle, ensure that your space is well ventilated and maybe turn the AC on (a dream combination of a spice scented candle, low temperatures, and a cozy blanket, anyone?) to keep the air moving. Bonus points if you can run an air purifier.

Personally, I try to avoid exposure to these chemicals and therefore limit my use of candles. However, I cannot resist a good scented candle every now and then, especially in the fall and winter. And based on the evidence, there’s probably nothing significantly wrong or damaging about this. When I do buy new candles, I try to stick with beeswax and soy candles but I’m not crazy about it.

As with most things, the research is constantly developing and this conversation could change over time. It may come to light some day that the tiny exposure to toxic chemicals from candles is actually causing subtle health impacts. For now, maybe consider avoiding candles but certainly don’t freak out over it.

I hope you found this information useful. I know doing this research both challenged me to limit my candle use and comforted me that occasional use is not going to hurt me or my family. If this intrigued or challenged you as well, stay tuned for upcoming posts on natural ways to deodorize your house and make it smell amazing.

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