Burning candles, magic candles, incense, and pyrotechnics such as fountain candles creates a sense of joy and celebration in various life and social events. Unfortunately, most people never even thought about the smoke, particulate matter, or the pollution that occurs and remains in indoor air after such activities. A lot of studies have raised the issue of whether the use of such products indoors can worsen indoor air quality [1,2]. Contrary to that, the exposure to fine ambient particulate matter has been associated with cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and its relevance to particulate matter from different candle burning remains unexplored [3].
The objective of the current study was to characterize the number concentration and mass concentration of particulate matter originated indoors when burning fountain candles, which are commercially available in Latvia. Therefore, simulating studies of burning fountain candles were performed in a close laboratory for quantitative analysis of obtained particulate matter. For the mass concentration of PM10, PM2.5, PM1, and number concentration of ultra-fine and fine particulate matter with diameters from 0.265 up to 2.750 µm measuring, the spectrometer GRIMM EDM—365 (Grimm Aerosol Technik, Ainring, Germany) was used. In order to determine possible exposure of emitted particulate matter, a detecting device was placed 1 m from the fountain candle. In another experiment, a detecting device was placed 4 m from the fountain candle to characterize particulate matter distribution dynamics (see Figure 1).
Figure 1.
Mass concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, and PM1 emitted from fountain candle burning depending on the distance of the detecting devise.
Model experiments showed that most of the particulate matter released indoors after fountain candles burning are in size ≤ 0.265 µm, which are the most harmful to human health. The mass and number concentration of particles depend on the distance at which the emission source is located, e.g., ultra fine particles move further in the room and their concentrations are higher at 4 m compared to 1 m.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, A.A. and M.R.; methodology, A.A. and M.R.; software, L.P.; validation, M.B. and L.P.; formal analysis, L.P.; investigation, A.A.; resources, A.V.; data curation, L.P.; writing—original draft preparation, A.A.; writing—review and editing, M.R.; visualization, L.P.; supervision, A.A.; project administration, A.V. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research received no external funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement
Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement
Data are unavailable.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
References
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