Does This Incense You?

I recently received an email from a group called NowPublic which runs news stories about current events (submitted by members in a similar vein to Wikipedia, from what I can tell). They had written to request the use of a photo I recently took in an article entitled “Incense Gives You Cancer, So Pray Less.” The title caught my interest, and my ego had been properly stroked with the request to publish my photo, so of course, I dropped in to take a look at the site.

The article presents an interesting conundrum for lovers of incense the world over and, as was obvious from the comments generated on the site, it managed to strike a nerve. Two readers even went so far as to refuse to share their photos on the grounds that the author’s tone was disrespectful and he was spreading baseless rumors. Ouch.

I'm currently living in Korea, where incense is a part of the religious tradition for a great portion of the population. It’s certainly not as omnipresent here as it was in Taiwan (where I also spent a year working as an English teacher), where the heavy scent of burnt offerings would spill from street-level shop fronts and chase you down the sidewalk. But if you visit the grounds of any Buddhist temple and peer respectfully inside, you will see faithful followers lighting joss sticks and beginning their successions of bows as the thick temple air swirls around them.

I find myself turning to the sticks when I’m craving the scent of their musky perfume, or the calming effect incense brings as I watch its feathery plumes of smoke meander through the air. It’s a somewhat entrancing, and certainly pleasant, experience, and the article didn’t dissuade me at all from continuing my incense tradition. I'm of the camp that most anything done in excess can't be good for you, but I have serious doubts that my infrequent use of incense could cause any more long-term damage than the many vices so easily accepted by mainstream culture.

I appreciated the comments of one poster who said,

“Probably inhaling any kind of smoke can cause cancer, but I also believe that cultivating a meditative state of mind, through meditation or prayer or what you want to call it, reduces the risk of getting cancer from anything. As with everything else; find a balance.”

In the end, I did opt to add my photo (you can see it here)... although the other 174 photos already linked the article proved to undermine my short-lived ego boost. I rather doubt that worshippers will start cutting back on incense usage in the way that dieters restrict their calories, but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded that our health is, to a large extent, affected by our environment.