Mike
Carruthers: If you like to burn candles in your home you should
be aware of what happens when you burn "jar candles" - you know the
candles that come in the glass jars. Jeff
May: Jar candles produce a lot of soot. If you look at a jar candle
at the rim you can see it's all black and that's the soot. Jeff
May, author of the book Jeff
May's Healthy Home Tips… And
that soot will stain the walls and ceilings in a house and literally there's been
millions of dollars worth of damage done and there's actually more and more evidence
that the soot particles are very, very unhealthy. The small soot particles are
associated with increased levels of heart disease. Why
are jar candles such a problem? Jeff says, because they flicker. When
a flame has a nice shape to it you get complete combustion and as soon as you
disturb a candle, even a tapered candle, you can see it starts to produce smoke.
And it's why people like jar candles because they flicker, because the air changes
direction as it comes down into the candle and that causes the turbulence. Self-cleaning
ovens are a great invention but Jeff says you have to be careful. The
way they work is that they get very, very hot and they burn off what's inside
the oven and it can actually produce quite a bit of carbon monoxide. So you really
ought to have windows open and have the exhaust fan on. And actually the manufacturers
even recommend that you take pet birds out, I guess some birds have died from
the carbon monoxide. At
somethingyoushouldknow.net I'm
Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know. |