Burning spirit money has been shown to have rather serious health consequences. Threats posed by direct exposure to even small amounts of toxic pollution from votive paper combustion include an elevated risk of cancer, respiratory illnesses, skin conditions, Parkinson’s disease, and eye ailments.
It seems ironic, then, that a pharmacy, where people normally go to get better, would burn quantities of ritual currency. When asked why the pharmacy does this, a pharmacist answered, “for good health”, before pausing to consider her response. “And wealth”, she added, seemingly not impervious to the intense heat and choking smell emanating from the burner placed directly on the ground in front of her.
After all, for businesses, nowadays, underneath the symbolism, the ritual indulges their desire for profit, even as shopkeepers themselves acknowledge, it is marketing, service, quality, and other factors that actually draw consumers, not propitiating spirits and burning paper that has been treated with noxious chemicals releasing acrid plumes of smoke into the air directly at the entrance of their store.
Even a ritual goods store owner, who has been in business for more than thirty years admitted that he too is driven by the material value of money rather than simply its immaterial meaning. When asked what significance the simulated bills also called hell bank notes he was selling have, he answered candidly, “none, they’re useless”.