[Dialup Llama]

>and that the United States is studying plans to outlaw leaded-wick candles.

Call me crazy but buring lead particles in your house strikes me as one of those things you shouldn't do.

[lds23]

I want reparations from China. Look what they've done to my mind!

[Carolina]

LOL! Aromatherapy might be more than you bargained for.

[alloysteel]

Ah, the craziness that prevails in "earth mother" homes shall be further exacerbated and extended by the heavy-metal poisoning caused by the volatilized lead. Didn't they take Ethyl (tetraethyl lead) out of gasoline some years back for this vary reason?

[mbynack]

According to the "www.snopes2.com" urban legend site:

Most domestic candle manufacturers took lead out of their wicks in the 1970s, though the Consumer Product Safety Commission in 1974 didn't find it a health hazard. Concerns about the potential for harm continue to rage. In February 2000 the Public Citizen's Health Research Group asked the CPSC to immediately ban lead-wick candles and recall any that were still on store shelves.

According to the National Candle Association, the majority of wicks manufactured today in the U.S. are made entirely of cotton, with no metal cores. Those few wicks made with metal are typically zinc-core wicks. All of these wicks are safe, so there is no need to eschew metal wicks, just lead ones.

The National Candle Association says there is an easy way to test whether a candle has a lead core wick: Take an ordinary piece of white paper and rub it on the tip of an un-burnt wick. If the wick leaves a light grey pencil-like mark, it has a lead core. No mark, however, and the candle is lead-free.

Concerns about the effect of candles on health are not solely limited to worries about lead's being loosed into the air -- some people have voiced apprehensions over potentially carcinogenic dyes and perfumes used in these products, and yet others fear the consequences of paraffin fumes, asserting "It is never healthy to breathe petroleum products." How valid these misgivings are is anyone's guess.

[swarthyguy]

This news came out in an obscure article a while back. Candle burning friends of mine refused to believe it. The ironic thing is some of them are so concerned about their diets and unhealthy influences in their lives but will sit for hours in a sealed room in the winter eating brown rice and veggies with half a dozen lit candles refusing to believe that they contain lead.

[Hoosier Patriot]

Why not a magnesium core wick, for that warm, cheery, arc light glow?

[elcaudillo]

How about a ban on all Made in China goods?