Beeswax candle claim

[CJSF]

While looking up some information about honey and bees, I came across a site that had some "FAQs" about beekeeping, honey, pollen, and beeswax. One of the questions and answers about beeswax candles is:

Q: What is the advantage of burning beeswax candles?

A: As beeswax candles burn, they emit negative ions into the air. This is unlike other waxes such as paraffin which emit positive ions that exist in the form of pollution. The negative ions that beeswax emits bonds with particulate matter (pollutants) and fall out of the air, thus cleaning it.

This is violating my "Botti Sounds Right Rule," but I was wondering, is this supported by evidence? How true is this claim?

CJSF
P.S. The Botti Sounds Right Rule is just a name I give when little mental "alarm bells" go off because something sounds like it might be bogus. A former co-worker of mine, Jim Botti, used the term to refer to his own "Rule" and I have used it since.

[korjik]

For every negative ion there is a positive one.

[Paul Beardsley]

For every negative ion there is a positive one.

Were this not true, there would be a highly charged region somewhere!

I can't shed any other light on the candle, alas.

[Strange]

All the positive ions must remain behind bound up with bogons.

[Strange]

Were this not true, there would be a highly charged region somewhere!

I can't shed any other light on the candle, alas.

B'dum tsh.

[grapes]

Sounds like an extension of Air Ionizers. Himmm, I did not know that Sharper Image paid half a million in attorney fees to Consumer Reports.

[nosbig5]

Well, the sellers of beeswax say that they have scientific proof, so it must be true.

But I only see the results of one study shown, and nobody provides a link to the actual study.

http://www.busybeebeeswax.ca/negativeions.html

As Grapes said, air ionizers purport to do the same thing, although they don't work very well either.

Quite frankly, I don't know what the all the buzz is about.

[grapes]

udy shown, and nobody provides a link to the actual study.

http://www.busybeebeeswax.ca/negativeions.html

From that link:

For years alternative
health practitioners, entomologists and most notably beeswax candle makers have celebrated the fact
that beeswax is the only candle fuel that emits negative ions which in turn cleanse the air.

So while beeswax is not the only fuel to emit negative ions it is definitely
superior to paraffin and does not contain the carcinogenic compounds that paraffin does.

the
background negative ion count was 89 per cc. During the study , paraffin candles produced an
average of 72,972 negative ion particles per cc. of air while beeswax candles produced 101,276
negative ion particles per cc. of air.

Of course, too many ions can be a bad thing.

I am not just trying to start a rumor.

[nosbig5]

Right, so the beeswax candles produced ~39% more "negative ions" than did paraffin. Did they also produce ~39% more of other combustion byproducts that either aren't listed or weren't tested for? Don't know, no link to the study.