To figure out if charcoal is harmful, you need to look at where it comes from, what it’s made of, and how it’s meant to be used. Charcoal is usually okay for cooking and art, but it can be bad if it has extra stuff added, like chemicals. Check the label to see what’s in it and if there are any warnings. Also, pay attention to the type of charcoal because some kinds can make harmful stuff when they burn. Follow the safety instructions from the company, and be careful when using charcoal indoors to avoid breathing in any bad fumes.
This is the tips for seeing if charcoal is toxic:
Before you use the charcoal, if you buy the products with a packaging cover, you should see the product description and the product materials, if you see there are information that says the charcoal contains chemicals, or you see the product description that says “Quick lighting charcoal” almost all of them are charcoal that contain chemicals.
Checking the charcoal is also an important aspect before you use it to know if it contains chemicals or not, this is a good method if the charcoal is uncovered/unpackaged or you can grab the charcoal inside the packaging. If you see some sort of bright and moist unusual smell. You can consider the product before purchasing it.
Before you use it and when you want to, you can try to light the charcoal up, this is also a good and effective to know more about your charcoals. If your charcoal can have quick lighting and is easy to burn, you must consider this product, because it has a chance that this product is charcoal that contains chemicals, such as the “Quick lighting charcoal” category.
If you smell the charcoal and you find out that the smell is not like charcoal and you smell more like chemical contamination, that it gives a higher percent chance that the product has chemicals inside it, don’t smell it too much, because it is also not good for your health. So just sniff it slowly and don’t be too long.
You can also check the smoke from this charcoal because there are differences in the smoke color. Smoke colors that contain chemicals have a darker smoke and un-good smell. Natural charcoal has lighter smoke and a more grey color that contrasts.
But it also does not consider the smoke to have chemicals, we need to identify it in other ways such as by checking the smell.
After you burn the charcoal and use it, it contains an ash. This ash sometimes be cleaned easily by most users. But, you can also identify this product type by seeing its ash color. Most of the charcoal that contains chemicals inside it has an ash color of bright white or we can call it snow white. This color means that the white is too bright and it means that the product contains chemicals. Natural charcoal contains a good ash color such as white silver colour or white yellow. The best natural charcoal ash according to people and charcoal experts is white silver, while snow white is good for the view, but it’s not good for your health.
