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In antique times, Incense was (and still is in the producing countries)
commonly available in small translucent grains. In fact Flaubert wrote
: « This grain of incense filling up a whole church».
However, nowadays « incense » commnly refers t cheap sticks, widely available
in the shops, made from a neutral powder glued onto the stick and then
dipped in a mixture of perfumes. In general for in order to save money
those cheap sticks do not contain any resin like myrrh or Olibanum, but
rather synthetic perfumes (from petrochemical industry) and often the
composition is not detailed. They are cheap yes! but also of low quality
and unfortunately can be harmful.
Read in the newspaper "La Provence" and in the monthly "Boudhisme actualités" :
A study carried out by Taiwanese scientists on behalf of the "New
Scientist" tends to prove that the smoke emanating from cheap incense sticks industrially produced contains Polyacrilic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAHs) which are highly carcinogenic,
provoking respiratory affections 45 times hisgher than a room with cigarette smoke...
We have taken the decision to stand out from those products, prefering the term
« Burning Sticks»
to that of «incense» which has now become too fuzzy. Also as in the tradition, we are
using natural raw materials such as Cade, Cedar, Eucalyptus, Olibanum, Myrrh, etc...
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