Scented candles

[Doug]

I do not intend to belittle my dearest wife, Kel, but she doesn't get that parrots are at higher risk than people and dogs with regard to certain in-home hazards.

 

"Ellie can just deal with it!"

 

Well, maybe she can't...

 

Kel loves scented candles. (Especially in the basement, since we both have our "work" offices in the basement. Which has its own aroma issues.)

 

I took away Kel's no-stick frying pan and pancake skillet. I took away Kel's panini press. I've given her a lot of extra work. (I travel a lot and she has to care for Elegua while I am gone.)

 

I'm struggling to take away the scented candles.

 

Are they really a risk to our feathered friends? Serious question! (Is it instant death? Is it cumulative resulting in death in a few months? Is it cumulative resulting in a reduced lifespan? Is it perhaps harmful, so "better safe than sorry"?)

 

If they are a risk, what are my options for aromatic "enhancement"? I could throw some citrus and spice in some water on the stove (and hopefully remember to deal with it before it bursts into flames) but the basement is completely free of stoves... Can I make my own scented candles that are risk-free?

 

(Look, I am personally overly sensitive to "perfumes", meaning air-fresheners, candles, actual perfumes, etc. (Excepting my own "funk" of course...) My wife could possibly be cynical enough to think that I am using Ellie as an excuse to ban any of that stuff... I'm not but I wouldn't complain...)

[pikachu]

Doug, I don't know the answer to this. Pine sol is supposed to be toxic, but we used it all the time & didn't affect our Tiel. Of course once we found out, we stopped using it.

And we also used Teflon until we found out it can be harmful. Didn't affect the Tiel.

 

I'm sure you have read the posts by the owner of the grey who is wheezing, potentially from a chemical. I can't imagine what they are going through.

It's not worth the risk.

[danmcq]

Scented candles are very harmful to your birds.

 

http://www.berkscountybirdclub.com/index_files/Scented%20Candles.pdf

[Doug]

Dan, I'm not denying the conclusion, but that reference is anedotal and does not show correlation. (It has all the hallmarks of an urban legend - emotional appeal, name-dropping (why mention specific names of people that don't actually contribute any information?), bunching together of unrelated facts.)

 

I'd really like to see some real data, but perhaps it isn't out there anywhere.

 

I will look into simmer pots...

[Doug]

I remembered that, when I bought my new crock pot (the old one did double duty as a deep fryer when you removed the crockery and it was Teflon-coated), that it included a small serving pot:

 

Crock-Pot® Little Dipper® Warmer

 

I've been told by other bird owners to use a simmer pot with things like orange or lemon peel, cinnamon or nutmeg.

 

So, I cut up an orange, filled it with water and a cinnamon stick. I put it in the basement while my wife was taking our daughter to the dentist. That way, it should have the basement filled with pleasant aroma by the time she gets back. If it works well, she will see the impact and maybe she'll accept it...

 

 

BUT! (And this is a big "but" so to speak...) The aromatic effect of an orange peel is due to the essential oils in the peel. The aromatic effect of a cinnamon stick is due to the essential oils in the cinnamon bark.

 

Most aromatics are that way because of essential oils. Simply because they convey aroma.

 

So, are all essential oils evil (as stated in the link provided by Dan)?

 

If not, then how do we know what is safe and what isn't?

 

If so, then are there ANY aromatic items/compounds, which DON'T have essential oils, that can be used in a simmer pot?

Edited November 9, 2011 by Doug

[danmcq]

Your right Doug, there isn't any actual data from exposure studies on candles and their affect on the avian respiratory system.

 

But, feedback from the avian veterinary community that have birds coming in with various symptoms including death have linked a ton of airborne chemicals, gases, oils etc. that cause serious harm to our avian friends. Perhaps the quantity at times of any chemical is not sufficient to kill on the spot, but the long term effect can greatly shorten the life span of our avian friends.

 

The problem is, to get that data and log it, you would need to kill thousands of birds for each chemical/oil etc. to establish what a safe level is.

 

The same is true with many food items listed as poisonous to our birds like onion, garlic, avocado etc. most the ones I listed are "Suspect", but the is no data proving it. It is just avian vets that have performed necropsy's on these birds and found the underlying suspected culprit.

 

My rule has always been "If in doubt, keep it away from your birds".

 

Being an engineer, I live off of data. It has always been difficult, to say the least, for me to accept just general consensus and not stone cold data/facts from scientific studies. So I can appreciate your analytical need as well for it.

[Doug]

Dan,

 

I certainly understand your statement:

 

Being an engineer, I live off of data. It has always been difficult, to say the least, for me to accept just general consensus and not stone cold data/facts from scientific studies. So I can appreciate your analytical need as well for it.

 

While I have been in sales (drive/control systems for port cranes) for MANY years, I have my masters in electrical engineering. I crave data and confirmed sources!

 

Most vets are not able to accurately determine cause of death. Many unfortunate deaths go unsolved but lead to speculation which, via meme propagation, becomes fact.

 

As much as I would like to have statistically significant data, I wouldn't dream of performing median lethal dose studies on our feathered friends!

[Doug]

But what about essential oils?

 

Are they uniformly dangerous?

 

If so, then many well-meaning bird owners are slowly killing their birds by maintaining simmer pots.

[brianlinkles]

This is a question that comes up all the time. I like your wife, am in love with my candles! This was the one thing I wanted to find out when getting my birds. I have asked my vet and my breeder about this and this is what I have found out. You can burn any soy candle (as long as thereis no metal in the wick, chances are you will not find that in a soy candle) You can burn any beeswax candle. My doctor is not worried about the scented candles, he is more worried about the wick. Do not burn any candle with any type of metal in the wick. Stay away from heavily scented candles right next to where the bird is. Even after saying this I try and mostly burn the soy candles in the house. My fav is Aveda shampure. I have burned it quite often in a room next to where the birds are. Partylite also makes very nice soy candles that I burn.

[Talon]

I agree that candles are toxic to our birds. I'm not really into scientific data etc. BUT I do occasionally burn beeswax candles in my bedroom. I have burned fragrant candles also, and Talon sleeps in my bedroom. I burned fragrant candles during our recent power outage in the same room as ALL my birds in the evenings for light, they seemed okay by it.

I do not do it often as I don't think I should be burning them at all. In my mind the accumulative affect of it worries me.....but then again, they will all outlive me I expect.....

[danmcq]

But what about essential oils? Are they uniformly dangerous? If so, then many well-meaning bird owners are slowly killing their birds by maintaining simmer pots.

 

Unknown, we do use simmer pots at times. The reasoning I have, is there is a huge difference in the quantity released/vaporized when burning versus a low heat. Of course, I can not prove that theory with out being able to take air samples and measure.

 

BTW - Small world. I have a BS in Electronic Hardware/Software Engineering and have been working in this field for 30 years.

[Birdnut]

When I feel the need to burn a candle, I have been using the bird safe beeswax candles put out by "The Birds and the Bees," which are available through avitec.com. They have no added scent, but beeswax has a nice scent in itself.

 

I have also occasionally used incense sticks, which I do not light, but just prop a bunch in a glass or jar where they give off a subtle scent. I especially like the Sai Baba Nag Champa incense. This stuff will give a nice scent to a room without burning anything. When the sticks dry out and no longer give off scent, they can just be replaced with a fresh batch. Doug, do you think something like that might satisfy your wife for her office area?

 

Any feedback from anyone on whether the non-burned incense stick idea would pose a problem for the birds?

[Talon]

Great idea!! Yes, Doug, Yankee Candle sells air freshners for your car in all the candle scents. Your wife could use these in place of candles....yes, they have a fragrance, but it isn't being burned which seems to me less severe.

[zandische]

Ok, so I too love candles but I love my birds more J

 

Here’s what I’ve found in my research on this subject: I believe the primary danger to a bird's respiratory system stems from the way their lungs operate at a higher efficiency that normal mammalian lungs, making the exchange of oxygen to blood ratio much higher. Therefore, any chemical that gets included in the gas exchange that takes place in the lungs is potentially harmful, and on an exponentially larger scale (despite their smaller size) than it is for us.

 

So basically, birds breathe more efficiently than we do because they need greater quantities of oxygen for flight, and when you introduce harmful chemicals to that process, that means they absorb those chemicals into their systems better than we do too. Some birds may tolerate certain chemicals better than others, just as some humans have different levels of sensitivity to these things, but ultimately I think there is a pretty solid body of evidence out there that long term exposure to airborne pollutants is a bad thing for anyone, human or avian.

 

In the wild, birds are much better equipped to handle poor air quality due to lack of movement restriction and the fact that any air pollution is distributed over a larger area. That doesn't mean that poor air quality hasn't been documented to affect the health of birds – google “air quality and avian death” to find articles on this.

 

In a home though, even a flighted bird’s movement is severely restricted, and generally, air circulation in a home is usually poor at best. So logically, any reduction of air quality – due to stale air, chemicals, smoke, vapors, scents, etc - can be potentially harmful or fatal to a bird even if no human, dog, cat or mouse shows a response to it. So, rather than look at statistics on bird deaths in relation to specific devices like candles, Teflon, etc, I’d point you to the physiology as proof that birds have much more sensitive respiratory systems. Taking it one step further, if you apply the science behind how human lungs are affected by specific chemicals (like ammonia) or chemicals over a long period of time (like cigarette smoke or smog), it stands to reason you can draw logical conclusions about what airborne pollutants are going to be harmful to a bird.

 

I used to be a fish nut and shopped at an awesome fishstore downtown, who had higher prices but treated every fish in their store like a prized rare specimen (even the guppies.) I dropped in one day and noted two immediate things – a yankee candle burning near the cash register (to cover up the damp mold smell most fish stores have as a result of so much water in an enclosed space) and a gorgeous white cockatiel half-covered up a few feet away. I immediately sought out the owner and explained the analogy of a fish tank that builds up toxic ammonia because it isn’t kept clean. Fish die in dirty fish tanks because they “breathe” the ammonia in, which builds up in their blood and their system to toxic levels and eventually causes organ failure and death. Some fish handle it better than others and can live a long time in poor water quality, and some are so sensitive that any ammonia at all is lethal. So put that into perspective for your birds – if you reduce air quality through an artificial environment (your home) and then pollute that air quality with harmful chemicals (candles, air fresheners, ammonia/bleach cleaners, etc) you are raising the toxicity in your bird’s system regardless of whether they show visible signs. Maybe your bird won’t die today, but what about tomorrow? A week from now? A year from now?

 

Obviously, most of us have lives that are filled with some kind of airborne pollutants such as cleaning solutions, cooking vapors, smoking, candles etc, so I think the key is to do your best to eliminate as many chemicals as possible and improve air quality through fresh air, air purifiers and better air circulation. It’s hard to not use chemicals when you clean your bathroom, but could you move your birds to another room and open some windows or use an air purifier to reduce exposure when you do clean? That’s totally within your control. Same thing with candles. Maybe you don’t have to get rid of the candles, but could your wife restrict their use to the bathroom (which has a fan for circulating steamy air into the attic) or room where your birds are not hanging out? How about look at ways to circulate polluted air out of your house instead of through your house, e.g., using the "fan" setting on your heating/cooling system to draw in fresh air from the outside with a fan set up facing out an open window to pull that fresh air through the room and out the other side?

 

That being said I have simmered cinnamon & apples, or strawberries in my crockpot for a pleasant scent, but mostly if I want my house to smell “good” I either bake something or open the windows!

Edited November 10, 2011 by zandische

[Talon]

Fantastic information! Thank you for taking the time to post this.

[chezron]

Great post Zandische! I try to avoid the use of ALL aerosols or anything that will volatilize to a great degree. We also have the windows open most of the time for fresh air. I mean think about it, not only are birds lungs super-efficient, but they live OUTSIDE normally, and exposing them to fumes, gases, smoke or candle scent is an extra burden on the unnaturalness of being indoors. I do not have scientific studies to buoy this out but it sounds good to me!

 

This about effect on humans by "air-fresheners" - "Reports of the dangers of chemical air "fresheners" are just beginning to make the news. A recent MSN article stated that being exposed to air "freshener" chemicals as little as once a week can increase your odds of developing asthma symptoms as much as 71 percent and can contribute to an increased risk of a number of pulmonary diseases. [2] The article went on to state that "A 2006 study showed that people with high blood levels of the chemical 1.4 dichlorobenzene -- commonly found in air fresheners -- were more likely to experience a decline in lung function."

 

A September 2007 TIME magazine article, 'How "Fresh" is Air Freshener' reported that the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) discovered that most chemical air "fresheners" contained variable amounts of substances called phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates). Besides the use of phthalates used as sealants and adhesives and to soften plastics, they are also used to dissolve and carry fragrances. The TIME article went on to report that "phthalates are commonly found in a variety of products, including cosmetics, paints, nail polish and children's toys -- and have long been at the center of a larger international controversy over their health effects." [3]

 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has no regulations on the use of phthalates, does not require the labeling of phthalates content on products and does not consider the quantities to which people are exposed to be harmful, even though studies have suggested that high exposure to certain kinds of phthalates can cause cancer, developmental and sex-hormone abnormalities in infants, and can affect fertility. [4 ]"

 

I don't know about essential oils health effects. I imagine anything that volatilizes is probably not so good for your bird. I did find this on a Safe Bird website:

 

"Scented items that release fumes should not be used around your birds. If you must burn scented candles, remove birds from the immediate area. Most of these items contain essential oils, which are hazardous when burned. There has been some evidence that they are not particularly good for human lungs as well, but we have much larger lungs that are constructed differently from bird lungs, so we can tolerate years of exposure. Birds can succumb upon a single exposure if they are in a confined space where they cannot escape the fumes."

[Birdnut]

Chezron, thanks for bringing up the dangers of phthalates. I was just watching a documentary on PBS last night that covered this.

 

One happy thing is that all the measures we may use to protect our birds from these kind of environmental pollutants benefit us as well!

[chezron]

Birdnut, you are so right about that!