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Blowing out birthday candles boosts bacteria to disgusting levels

Birthday cake lovers, beware. If you’ve ever taken part of the classic birthday ritual — you know: dimmed lights, loud singing of “Happy Birthday” followed by candle blowing — you’ve participated in a very disgusting tradition. Researchers at Clemson University recently conducted a study to find out whether significant bacteria is transferred to the cake when someone blows out their candles. Mimicking a traditional child’s birthday party, participants ate several slices of pizza before volunteering to blow out candles on top of an ordinary birthday cake. A control group cake had no party-goers blow on it. Then the two were compared. Researchers found that the cake where the candles had been blown out had more than 1,400% more bacteria than the cake that was left alone. Interestingly, people blew greatly varied number of bacteria — some didn’t transfer any, and some, for whatever reason, transferred a lot. (Maybe a germaphobic researcher out…

Why you should be burning soy candles instead of your ordinary candles

At any holiday dinner gathering you can usually find smiling faces, delicious food, and a festive table glowing with gorgeous candlelight. But most people are in the dark about what those common paraffin wax candles are made of. Companies are not required to list candle ingredients (comparable to food and drink manufacturers), so most people never consider their contents. But by lighting that wick, you are letting the candle release waste products into your home environment, and ultimately into your body. Soy candles contain vegetable oil (soybeans) and essential oils, while paraffin wax is made with petroleum oil and chemical fragrances. According to a study at South Carolina State University, paraffin wax candles — the most popular kind of candles — emit toxic chemicals like toluene and benzene, while soybean candles did not. Here are 8 reasons why soy candles are a better choice for your holiday dinner party and every day after. Soy…