Abstract
Objectives: We measured the density of smoke and harmful gases emitted from burning adhesive indirect moxa. Through the test we aimed to find out if there was an excessive amount of smoke emitted and if it included harmful gases. Methods: 9 types of adhesive indirect moxa were chosen. The buffer layers which do not burn during treatment were removed and 10g of each moxa were made into powder and put into a holder. A smoke density chamber (Smoke Density Chamber FTT. U.K) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR I 4001. MIDAC U.S.A.) were used to measure the density of smoke and harmful gases emitted from burning moxa by ISO 5659-2 test. Results: The result of measuring maximum smoke density showed that the regular indirect adhesive moxa (A-F) emitted high density smoke of 172.1-291.4Ds. The smokeless moxas, Seoam moxas, emitted the least amount of 3.4-5.5Ds. Concentrations of 7 typical harmful gases (CO, HCl, HCN, HBr, HF, SO2, NOx) were measured and all of the moxas emitted CO due to incomplete combustion. 4 types of moxa emitted NOx and all smokless moxas emitted NOx. HBr, HCN, HCl, HF, SO2 were not found in any of the moxas. Conclusions: The amount of harmful gases emitted from burning moxa was much lower than short-term exposure standards of chemical and physical factors (Ministry of Labor 2010-44). Further experiments measuring gases from moxa combustion should be done in larger environments similar to normal medical clinics.
