#1235 Is earwax actually wax?

Is earwax actually wax? No, ear wax isn’t actually wax. It is similar in consistency and texture to wax, which is why it is called wax, but it isn’t actually wax. Let’s look at what earwax is and what wax is.

Earwax is technically called cerumen, which is the Latin word for wax. It is produced by modified sweat glands that are in the outer ear canal, which is the air side of your eardrum. These glands produce the basis of the earwax, which is then mixed with oil produced by other glands, and some alcohol, giving it its wax-like texture. It is also made up of dead skin cells and hair. There are two kinds of earwax: wet and dry. This is decided by a gene called ABCC11. If you have the dominant form of this gene, you’ll have wet earwax, and if you have the recessive form of this gene, you’ll have dry earwax. As you can probably guess from its name, wet earwax is very oily and sticky, while dry earwax is dry and flaky. Incidentally, the wet and dry earwax gene changes depending on your race. People in East and Southeast Asia, and Native Americans, tend to have dry earwax. Africans and Europeans tend to have wet earwax. Everybody else are in the middle. So, why do we have earwax?

The job of earwax is to protect the ear. It lines the ear canal, making it more waterproof. It has a high fat content, which stops the insides of your ears from drying out and lubricates them. It traps dirt, dust, and other particles that enter your ears. It traps dead skin and hairs that fall into your ears and carries them out. And, probably one of its most important jobs, it traps bacteria and fungi, even going as far as being slightly antibacterial. You probably find that all of your earwax tends to clump together in one place and this is because of the motion of your jaws. As you move your jaw, either through talking, yawning, or chewing, the motion rolls up the earwax, and slowly pushes it to the edge of the ear, where it can fall out. So, earwax is not wax, but it does contain a lot of fat and oil, which is a property of wax.

There are many different types of waxes, but they are all soft at room temperature and melt when heated. When it melts, wax becomes a liquid that flows very easily. It is hydrophobic, which means it repels water, and it is less greasy than fat. There are natural waxes, such as beeswax and the wax you find on leaves, and there are manmade waxes, such as paraffin wax. All waxes have a similar structure. They are made of long chains of fatty acids and long chains of alcohol. A long chain of fatty acids has 12 or more carbon atoms in it and they are linked to the alcohol chain. These chains are attracted to each other, but the attraction is not very strong and it is easily broken by adding heat. The heat at room temperature is not enough to break the bonds, but it is enough to loosen them, which makes wax soft at room temperature.

Earwax isn’t a wax because it doesn’t have enough of these long fatty acid chains. It has the alcohol and a lot of the other components, but it has a large concentration of dead skin cells, hair, dirt, and other things, which stop it being a real wax. It does have some of the properties of wax, but it will not burn very well, which is a major attribute of wax. When you make a candle out of wax, the heat melts the wax at the top of the candle. The liquid wax is drawn up the wick and burns, producing more heat, and melting more wax. You could not make a candle out of earwax because the dead skin is made of keratin, which doesn’t melt. The fat will burn, but the other impurities will make the flame inconsistent, or cause it to go out.

The most common natural wax is beeswax, obviously made by bees. The bees use it to make the inside of the nest to store honey and hold their larvae. The very first candles were made of beeswax or of animal fat. The earliest candles with a wick were probably used in Italy in roughly the 7^th century BC. They were definitely not made of earwax. And this is what I learned today.

Try these next:

Sources

https://www.health.qld.gov.au/newsroom/features/unveiling-10-secrets-about-ear-wax-essential-tips-for-healthy-ears

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earwax

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/24624-earwax

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wax

https://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/what-is-wax,-anyway.php