Comments on: Study Of Interior Toxicity Released

By: Landcrusher

Landcrusher — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:36:33 +0000

Here’s an idea. Bring your new car down to Houston in the summer. Leave it sitting with the windows down.

All the interior’s toxins will get boiled out by the heat and humidity.

By: AJ

AJ — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:26:10 +0000

I did a build to order for a Jeep TJ a few years ago. I was driving it five days after it rolled off the line, and boy, that was tough driving it as it stunk! It was winter too, so I was forced to leave the windows up.

By: golden2husky

golden2husky — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:37:58 +0000

Danm, Just what I need to do: feel bad about that new car smell. I wish that aroma could be bottled and sold. BTW, a poster mentioned chlorine (and its iterations like PVC) as being rather benign. Unfortunately that’s not true. Chlorine, while widely used in the industrialized world, has some serious health issues. Spend a little time googling about it; its not so harmless after all…

Landcrusher said: Buying used…It is a healthier choice, if for no reason other than reduced stress.

Ain’t that the truth…car payments suck…

By: shaker

shaker — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:21:09 +0000

Don’t the Japanese actually have a program to limit the outgassing of VOC’s allowed for interior materials?
Maybe that’s why they seem to score better.

By: capeplates

capeplates — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:41:49 +0000

Another piece of useless information to appease the green lobby. It’s what comes out of the tailpipe that causes concern, not a mixture of aromas(both manufactured and human) that pollute the interior

By: David Holzman

David Holzman — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:31:59 +0000

I love the smell of bromine

By: JuniorMint

JuniorMint — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:57:18 +0000

lol witty commentary! :D

they don’t tell you that smoking a single cigarette exposes you to 400% more toxins than you would get grinding up the entire dashboard and snorting it. can we reorganize our priorities, please?

By: SacredPimento

SacredPimento — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:10:40 +0000

Wow, I just looked up my wife’s car. A 2006 Jetta. Chlorine is abundant in that interior. I do have to say that our whites have never been whiter since we got it.

By: Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:15:52 +0000

And I was looking forward to barbecuing a new car interior next weekend.

This means I am going to have to continue eating meat.

By: dragofan

dragofan — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:10:42 +0000

Doesn’t some company make gauze-like pads that you put on your feet overnight to suck toxins out of your body? Buy a Kia and a couple packages of those and save yourself some coin!

By: Landcrusher

Landcrusher — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:55:43 +0000

Busbodger,

It is a healthier choice, if for no reason other than reduced stress.

By: joeaverage

joeaverage — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:30:47 +0000

So is buying a used car a healthier choice since everything has had a chance to bake out for a few years?

By: design89

design89 — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:55:43 +0000

Wow!The Astra did really great,better than most, even the Civic. I knew there was another great reason I bought this car.

By: seoultrain

seoultrain — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:49:31 +0000

Morea, I think you’re right. Many elements can be extremely dangerous in elemental form, but totally harmless as a component in a compound (sodium chloride, anyone?).

From their list of tested elements, lead stands out as being the only one that’s relatively common in elemental form and harmful at the same time. Are they seriously hinting that copper, nickel, PVC (chlorine), and tin are harmful? If you read their pdf’d full report, they even say that many of these elements aren’t very harmful and are widely used in other applications.

By: TEXN3

TEXN3 — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:39:07 +0000

I usually try to raise the toxicity of every car I sit in. Can you measure that?

By: Scottie

Scottie — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:38:39 +0000

The Daewoo Suzuki’s don’t seem to fair very well.

Even more reason for the US to get the Swift.

By: Morea

Morea — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:21:36 +0000

Their methodolgy seems to fail on at least two counts:

1) What they have detected are elements (antimony, arsenic, etc) and not chemical compounds. The chemical state of the elements (e.g., what other elements are the elements in question bonded to and in what configuration) has everything to do with their toxicity. (The type of x-ray work they preformed will not give them this information.)

2) They do not demonstrate that chronic exposure to the elements detected at the given detection levels is dangerous. They cannot do this because they do not know the chemical compounds involved (just the elements).

All they can say is that cars with lower concentrations of the elements in question are perhaps more likely to be less harmful to you. It is a very tenuous conclusion at best.

By: Facebook User

Facebook User — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:13:01 +0000

The Kia Spectra has a particularly high lead count.

I’ll try to remember not to chew on the dashboard the next time I’m in a Kia Spectra.

By: powerglide

powerglide — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:07:55 +0000

Bromine is bad ?

What about Brominated Vegetable Oil ?

(Soft-drink ingredient, along with other charmers like Glycerol Ester of Wood Rosin and Polyglycerol Esters of Fatty Acids)

By: Axel

Axel — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:50:48 +0000

We bought a Honda Civic LX in June. The most striking thing about it: no new car smell. None. And not surprisingly, it gets a great score at HealthyCar.org. Bravo Honda for using such quality materials.

Actually, there is a slight amount of new car smell now that we have had it for six weeks, but only when you get in after the car’s been sitting in the sun all day. My theory is some of the adhesives and other materials are effervescing slightly in the heat, and this builds up in the cabin. But it’s very slight. As opposed to our Chevy which still reeked of newness 18 months into ownership.