Are wax products safe?

[bluegrass]

Everybody is chemical conscious now days and we read about all the bad stuff in wax foundation. Some of these chemicals get introduced to the wax through treatments for various diseases, but I think a much larger portion of it is introduced on the bees themselves. As they forage the pick up what ever herbicides and pesticides are sprayed and applied around the places they forage...

These compounds are transported back to the colony in minute amounts over time and build up in the comb of the hive. Until we remove that wax and make something else out of it. So we may be polluting our own homes with the very compounds we don't want in our hives.

[Ben Brewcat]

Safe is a very relative term... what do you mean? For what uses? I, for one, never use wax from a cutout (which likely has pesticide residue from the homeowner trying the Raid solution before calling me) for cosmetics or candles but would have no problem using it for furniture polish, batik, tack or firestarters. Regular wax from my colonies I don't worry about from a human safety perspective; the trace contaminants, if any (from foraging) would be modest at most since I don't use "hard" chemicals. So I use wax I know where it's bee for balms and candles.

[sqkcrk]

What happens to any of the potential chemicals which may be present in beeswax when it is burnt? Burning, as in a candle, would change the compounds chemically, wouldn't it?

[bluegrass]

Use as a candle was my main line of thought, didn't really think about soap or balms etc.

Not that I burn much beeswax, but it would be interesting to somehow do air quality testing in a confined space while beeswax candles were burning and see what compounds were present. I agree it would have a lot to do with what the source of the wax was. Capping wax probably is about the cleanest source you could get and is probably the most frequently used.

[Ben Brewcat]

Squeak Creek, I'm right with you. That's the reason I don't burn suspect wax. I don't want to inhale whatever those substances do, whether it's volatilizing into the air or changing to something else.