Mass and incense

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SecretGarden

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I am allergic to incense. It causes my asthma to act up and it results in me having trouble breathing.

I was wondering how do others handle this problem? I always have my medication on me which I use but the incense causes tightness in the chest and coughing fits so I always leave the room so I don’t disturb others. Because of my reaction, during certain services, I don’t attend mass because I don’t want my asthma to act up nor do I want to disturb the mass.

I am curious to learn other people’s experiences and thoughts on this matter.

Thanks SG
 
SecretGarden said:
I am allergic to incense. It causes my asthma to act up and it results in me having trouble breathing.

I was wondering how do others handle this problem? I always have my medication on me which I use but the incense causes tightness in the chest and coughing fits so I always leave the room so I don’t disturb others. Because of my reaction, during certain services, I don’t attend mass because I don’t want my asthma to act up nor do I want to disturb the mass.

I am curious to learn other people’s experiences and thoughts on this matter.

Thanks SG
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A lot of people share your problem. Unfortunately some of those who don’t will not be very sympathetic.

I think what most people with asthma do is try to attend Mass at parishes which limit the use of incense to those Masses at which it is required. If Mass on a given day does require incense then try to sit in a location where you can easily leave or attend Mass at a “noisy parish” where your actions won’t be noticed as much.

If you don’t know of any parishes that seldom use incense then ask around to find out where the allergic priests are. I know that our former pastor was very allergic to incense so he was quite motivated to find types of incense that were “hypoallergenic”.
 
I have the same problem, so I can relate and sympathize.

When I could, I would go and sit in the glass enclosed cry room, at the back of the church at my last parish when incense was used, and when I was not singing with the choir. My pastor at the time recommended that I give this a try, as he knew that I had asthma and that the incense would bother me. That worked, for the most part. I would be exposed to it a little bit back there, but not as much as I would be, if I were out in the open area of the church.

At the same time during the Easter season, I just couldn’t figure out why I was coughing and wheezing so much on top of the incense, until I realized that it was the beautiful Easter Lilies that were causing problems for me on top of everything else. I am allergic to flowers on top of many other things.

So sometimes you do your best to work around things, and then sometimes you just can’t do it, as it gets to be too much for you. I had to eventually avoid those Masses where incense was used when I was singing with the choir, as it just got to be too much for me.

We did not have a choir loft in that church. It was a small church, and our choir area was at front of the church, near the altar, next to the organ and the piano.
 
  1. Most parishes these days will give a heads-up on which Masses will have incense and which won’t.
  2. That said, most people are not allergic to frankincense or related incense plants. Pure frankincense sap isn’t much like anything else, chemically. It burns so clean that it was traditionally used to soothe coughs and help lungs. Heck, it’s used as a treatment for asthma in many countries.
  3. So what are most people allergic to?
Charcoal lighter fluid used to light the charcoal in the thurible that burns the incense, instead of doing it the old way.

Charcoal that isn’t burned correctly producing more particulates than it should, because servers don’t know how to do it the old way.

Additives in the incense, because the parish is cheap or doesn’t know you can get purer mixes of incense that aren’t super-expensive.

Perfumes in the incense, because the parish wants a flowery incense smell.
  1. If most parishes consulted their older male members, they probably have a large number of guys who know how to do charcoal correctly from their altarboy days. Since parishes don’t go through tonloads of incense, they could always find some good suppliers and jump on sales.
  2. That said, there are some people who probably are totally programmed to have allergic reactions, thanks to all this yucky incense misuse, or who genuinely are so sensitive that even super-clean incense can set them off. So it’s a good thing to have a Mass be available that will be a little bit “low Mass” in the lack of incense use.
 
Thank you all for the words of advice.

Does anyone know how to look up at which masses incense will be used? At the church I go to, we don’t have a closed off area for the kids so I don’t have that option. Furthermore, due to my allergies, bad weather ( got to love minus 30 degree Sundays when one has to walk to church- no bus, no car etc) and some other things, I haven’t attended mass that much so I feel like of weird to suddenly be asking the priest which sundays he will be using incense when I have been once this year in 2015.

Plus there are some priests who love their incense and some really like to whip it around the church. I don’t want to be having to use my medication and everything. It’s hard to concentrate on the mass when one is having trouble breathing. I am also allergic to some perfumes too so it makes attending church an adventure sometimes.

Please keep your suggestions coming,

SG
 
SecretGarden said:
Thank you all for the words of advice.

Does anyone know how to look up at which masses incense will be used? At the church I go to, we don’t have a closed off area for the kids so I don’t have that option. Furthermore, due to my allergies, bad weather ( got to love minus 30 degree Sundays when one has to walk to church- no bus, no car etc) and some other things, I haven’t attended mass that much so I feel like of weird to suddenly be asking the priest which sundays he will be using incense when I have been once this year in 2015.

Plus there are some priests who love their incense and some really like to whip it around the church. I don’t want to be having to use my medication and everything. It’s hard to concentrate on the mass when one is having trouble breathing. I am also allergic to some perfumes too so it makes attending church an adventure sometimes.

Please keep your suggestions coming,

SG
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So sorry to learn of your asthma I have it myself, but my body reacts in a different way. Incense does not bother my asthma. And in the Orthodox church it is used for every service. It makes me wonder if there is a difference between Catholic and Orthodox incense?
They do sell "non-chocking incense.
 
Maybe you could ask them priest to let the parish know when to expect incense. I’m sorry to hear that you have troubles with it though.
 
Mintaka said:
Charcoal lighter fluid used to light the charcoal in the thurible that burns the incense, instead of doing it the old way.
Click to expand...
Lighter fluid? Lighter fluid?!?!? Who in the world uses lighter fluid? I’ve never seen lighter fluid used (only the briquets that spark when lit), and I’ve served in a variety of capacities in a large number of parishes!
Additives in the incense, because the parish is cheap or doesn’t know you can get purer mixes of incense that aren’t super-expensive.
Click to expand...
This could be. I’ve read that Gloria-P is supposed to be easier on those folks with sensitivities…
  1. That said, there are some people who probably are totally programmed to have allergic reactions
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Listen carefully, in church, when a thurible makes an appearance. Even before incense is applied to the thurible, you’ll hear people coughing. Without a doubt, there are people with physical sensitivities to incense… but some have a psychosomatic reaction when they so much as expect there to be incense. 🤷
 
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