New Delhi, December 26 (IANS). The government has issued a new BIS standard for agarbattis to protect consumer safety, indoor air quality and the environment. This new rule will ban harmful chemicals used in making incense sticks.
Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Pralhad Joshi released the ‘IS 19412:2025-Agarbatti’ standard on the occasion of National Consumer Day 2025. Its aim is to provide safe and good quality incense sticks to the people.
The new standard notified recently prohibits the use of certain pesticide chemicals and artificial fragrances that can be harmful to people’s health, indoor air and the environment. This will reduce the harm caused by burning incense sticks.
India is the largest manufacturer and exporter of agarbatti in the world. The size of the agarbatti industry in the country is around Rs 8,000 crore, and incense sticks worth about Rs 1,200 crore are sent to more than 150 countries.
This industry provides employment to artisans, small traders and MSME units working in villages and small towns. Especially women get work in large numbers, which sustains their livelihood.
According to the new BIS standard, there will be a complete ban on the use of certain chemicals in making incense sticks. These include certain pesticide chemicals such as allethrin, permethrin, cypermethrin, deltamethrin and fipronil, as well as artificial fragrances such as benzoyl cyanide, ethyl acrylate and diphenylamine.
Many of these chemicals have already been restricted or banned in many countries due to their harm to health and the environment. Therefore, a need was felt to stop their use in India also.
According to the ministry, keeping in mind the safety of consumers, clean air and protection of the environment, it was necessary to create a separate Indian standard for agarbattis.
In this new standard, incense sticks are divided into machine made, hand made and traditional masala incense sticks. In this, rules related to raw material, burning quality, fragrance and limit of chemicals have been fixed, so that people get safe and good quality incense sticks.
The incense sticks that meet this standard will be given the BIS standard mark. With this, consumers will be able to easily choose the right and safe product.
The government says that this new rule will increase consumer confidence, secure the livelihood of traditional artisans and Indian incense sticks will get more recognition in the world market.
–IANS
DBP/ABS
