Automobiles: Toxic Inside and Out

[Guest guest]

Invisible hitchhikers may be lurking in your car

Your biggest threat behind the wheel could be toxins riding shotgun

By Abrams

Mens Health

updated 11:09 a.m. ET, Sun., Jan. 13, 2008

" Oh great, my child's going to be a mutant, " says Lou Terrier as the woman

explains to him why she wants to look inside his car. Then Bobbi Chase

Wilding slips into the passenger seat of Terrier's family wagon, takes a

large gray gun from a shopping bag, removes a rectangular, metallic cap from

the business end, aims it point-blank at the dashboard, and pulls the

trigger.

Nothing happens. Or at least nothing Terrier can see. However, Wilding's

weapon is working perfectly as she continues to zap the dash. The Innov-X

XRF (for x-ray fluorescence) Analyzer identifies the chemical composition of

materials, including the abundance of plastic and fabric, inside an

automobile. A discerning eye like Wilding's can then determine that, say,

chlorine in the glove-compartment door makes it a possible source of

airborne toxins known as phthalates.

A poisonous glove compartment? Buckle up: Emerging research suggests that a

car's capacity to do violence to the human body may not be limited to

high-speed collisions. In fact, just sitting in the garage with the ignition

off could be risky. Best-case scenario, the fumes wafting from the materials

surrounding you might merely exacerbate pre-existing asthma

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or allergies

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on the scarier end of the spectrum, those airborne compounds could be

carcinogens. And the absolute worst-case scenario: The dashboard's to blame

for your small penis.

" I love the smell of deca in the morning, " says Wilding as she fires away at

the car, confident the XRF will reveal the presence of decabromodiphenyl

ether, the world's most common brominated flame retardant.

The dangers of phthalates

Wilding works for the Ecology Center, a nonprofit environmental watchdog

group that in 2006 published Toxic at Any Speed: Chemicals in Cars and the

Need for Safe Alternatives. The report examined two categories of chemicals

lurking in car materials: phthalates and brominated flame retardants, such

as deca. Phthalates make plastics softer and more elastic. They have also

been shown to lead to liver and kidney damage in rodents. As for the flame

retardants, they act like rat poison, too, causing brain damage and thyroid

problems.

And while the research on humans is more limited, it's no less alarming. One

2004 study from Sweden showed that children raised in houses with high

concentrations of phthalates in the dust were more likely to develop asthma

and allergies. Another recent study from the University of Rochester found

that men with the most phthalates in their bodies had waists 3 inches wider

than those with the least. Still more research suggests that we're being

attacked in utero, too: A 2005 paper in Environmental Health Perspectives

reported that mothers with higher levels of phthalates in their urine had

sons with less-developed genitalia.

Given the potential dangers, the researchers at the Ecology Center decided

to see if these toxins would turn up inside cars. In their study of 13

different brands, they sampled the film that collected on the inside of each

vehicle's windshield, working under the assumption that what makes its way

onto the windshield can easily end up in your lungs. The results, published

in Toxic at Any Speed, revealed significant levels of phthalates and

brominated flame retardants.

The same year the Ecology Center conducted its study, Japanese scientists at

the Osaka Prefectural Institute of Public Health performed an even more

extensive analysis. They sampled the air inside 101 newer cars and found

that each vehicle contained 241 different airborne toxins (also known as

volatile organic compounds, or VOCs), including a class of carcinogens

called aromatic hydrocarbons.

Finally, in a 2007 study, scientists at Taiwan's Hungkuang University

analyzed the air in 20 new vehicles, including coupes, compacts, sedans and

SUVs. Once again, the results revealed significantly elevated VOC levels in

all of the cabins. Worse, one sedan contained 200 times more xylenes, toxic

aromatic hydrocarbons, than human beings can safely inhale.

'Clearly toxic'

If that isn't enough to make you want to stick your head out of the sunroof,

consider this: The threat posed by individual chemicals may be dwarfed by

what happens when those chemicals gang up. " One interesting thing about

indoor air pollution is that there are unique chemical reactions going on in

the air between and among chemicals, " says Ted Schettler, M.D., science

director at the Science and Environmental Health Network, a nonprofit group

pushing for changes in environmental policy on the local and national

levels. " People have done the analysis and found a synthesis of new

compounds, some of which are clearly toxic through a variety of mechanisms. "

Terrier's car, a Toyota Matrix, turns out to be not too frightening. It has

a tad too much flame retardant on the steering wheel, but the doors, seat

cushions, and dashboard come out clean. However, the padding of Terrier's

child seat — temporarily vacated by the potentially mutant child — contains

a worrisome amount of bromine: 1,850 parts per million. In pool water, where

bromine is used as a disinfectant, the concentration isn't supposed to be

greater than 10 parts per million.

Given that the child seat didn't come with the car, the results don't seem

to support the Ecology Center's claim that the average automobile is hell on

wheels. One explanation may lie in the age of the Matrix — it's a 2003,

which is the same year that University of California scientists compared new

automobiles with old ones and found that the older vehicles often contained

50 percent fewer VOCs. Research suggests that after about 6 months, the

seats and other surfaces in a new car have emitted most of the VOCs capable

of entering the air.

But even if the car had been filthy with phthalates, some scientists would

argue that Wilding still lacked proof that the passengers were being

poisoned.

The worst-case scenario

" If you talk to a toxicologist, you always have to talk about dose, " says

Jeroen Buters, Ph.D., a toxicologist at the Technical University of Munich.

He explains that low dosages of potentially poisonous substances, like, say,

aspirin or whiskey, are simply not toxic. But quantifying exactly what dose

of VOCs an individual driver might be receiving during his daily commute is

tricky, which is why Buters decided to simply expose human cells — without

the human — to that very environment.

Buters and his colleagues took two cars of the same make — one brand-new,

the other 3 years old — and began by exposing them to 14,000 watts of light

from 28 halogen lamps. With the windows closed, that was enough heat to

raise the temperature inside both cars to 150°F. The reason for the heat

treatment: When the air temp hits triple digits, there's a loosening of the

molecular bonds that keep VOCs attached to cabin materials, boosting total

toxins in the air. So in essence, Buters re-created the veritable sea of

VOCs we wade into upon entering a car that's been baking in the sun all day.

Once the test conditions were set, Buters exposed samples of lung cells and

skin tissue to air extracted from inside the enclosed cabins. Two days

later, he assessed the impact. " From what we could see and test, there was

nothing but a slight aggravation of allergies, and we did the worst-case

scenario, " Buters says.

Jeff Gearhart, the director of the Ecology Center's Clean Car Campaign,

calls the study flawed. " They sampled too few vehicles and too few chemicals

to say anything definitive, " he says. " We have seen considerable variability

among vehicles, depending on the manufacturer and the type of interior trim.

He did not specify the materials or the vehicle make. "

Buters says he won't reveal the makes and models of the test cars for fear

of litigation (despite the happy outcome), but he does mention that the

vehicles had leather interiors, which may indeed have had something to do

with the results. According to the Ecology Center's ongoing evaluation of

VOCs in cars (posted at <http://www.healthycar.org/> healthycar.org), the

pricier the car, the less toxic its materials. Luxury cars tend to contain

safer flame retardants, leather instead of plasticized vinyl, and more

stable plastics overall. Nevertheless, Buters believes the results send the

right message to consumers.

" We all know that some people are more sensitive (to smells) than others, "

he says. " Sometimes if you don't feel well, you say 'why?' And you start

looking for reasons. "

Working to reduce VOCs

It's unlikely anyone would mistake the $17,000 Scion xB for a luxury car,

especially if luxury means low VOCs: The hip little econobox is one of the

worst-rated vehicles at healthycar.org. Only two other cars are lower on the

list: Chevy's Aveo and Nissan's Versa.

When asked about the ranking, Webber, general manager of vehicle

regulation and certification engineering for Toyota (which owns the Scion

brand), said that the company is working to reduce VOCs in all of its

vehicles by 2010. " To put this in some context, these reductions would mean

that VOC levels in our vehicles would be at less than current limits set in

Japan for new buildings, " he said. " Also, it should be understood that this

is not a simple task of replacing one interior material for another. It is

still necessary to validate a test that can assess the complex interaction

of interior materials that may result in VOC emissions. "

Toyota probably won't be the only car manufacturer to view change with

trepidation. And one company, Honda, doesn't seem so sure change is

necessary, even though its own vehicles score low in VOCs. " Everyone gets

into a new car and says, 'Oh, I smell something,' " says Amy Lilly, Honda's

environmental and energy-affairs analyst. " Sometimes when someone has read

something like the Ecology Center's report, it makes them unduly concerned. "

Volvo, on the other hand, doesn't see all that much difference between air

quality and air bags — the company considers both critical for passenger

safety. Since 1998, Volvo has employed the " clean compartment concept " in

all of its vehicles, and it's the only automaker with such a program. That

means, for example, phthalates are kept to a minimum; all metals meet the

European standard for jewelry (with nickel exposure kept below 0.5 µg/cm2/wk

to prevent contact allergies); and seats are upholstered with not just

leather, but chromium-free leather. Brominated flame retardants are also

out, though that wasn't entirely Volvo's call: When researchers in Sweden

found out 5 years ago that levels of the chemicals were increasing rapidly

in breast milk, they banned them completely.

That new-car smell

Ironically, once you remove most of the chemicals from a car's cabin, you

also remove an ineffable joy of owning a new car: the new-car smell. And

that's fine with the folks at Volvo, who equate that addictive odor with

unhealthy air. " We have our own nose team, " says Eeva-Liisa Book, Volvo's

manager of environmental communication. This intrepid group of nonsmoking,

non–deodorant-wearing 20- to 40-year-olds takes a sniff of nearly every

material destined for a new Volvo model. Such is the power of their noses,

that a single nostril wrinkle can send something to the scrap heap.

Until more evidence accumulates, it's doubtful that anyone shopping for a

new car will consider VOCs ahead of AWD, or ABS, or any of the other

acronyms with more tangible impacts on our wallets and well-being.

Nevertheless, Gearhart hopes the reports from the Ecology Center and the

Osaka Prefectural Institute of Public Health will at least make consumers

think about cabin air quality.

" We have over 100 million cars on the road built without standards for the

makeup of a healthy vehicle, " says Gearhart. " We're trying to prod the

industry to be more proactive, not only in avoiding the chemicals we've

indicated, but in using safer chemicals, period. "

EPA silent on the issue

Of course, new standards might be implemented sooner if the federal

government would flex some regulatory muscle with automakers. But

surprisingly, the same agency that sets limits on how much pollution cars

can spew into the outside air seems indifferent to the toxic smog swirling

inside them. " (The EPA) has no position on indoor air in cars, " says

spokesperson Dave . Yet the EPA's Web site shows that it's clearly aware

of the danger:

Many organic compounds are known to cause cancer in animals; some are

suspected of causing, or are known to cause, cancer in humans.

The same Web page, which goes so far as to offer advice on reducing exposure

to VOCs emitted from household products such as paints and certain cleaners,

is silent about car cabins. When asked for an explanation, couldn't

offer one and did " not care to speculate. "

What can a worried road warrior do if even the EPA doesn't have his back?

Because more VOCs are released when the interior heats up, buy a windshield

sun blind to help lessen the greenhouse effect (assuming you can handle the

geek factor). Along the same lines, roll down the windows and wait for the

oven-hot air to dissipate before you slide behind the wheel. In fact, some

carmakers, such as BMW, have models that allow you to program an exhaust fan

to switch on for pre-cooling/pre-venting. Another simple and inexpensive

strategy: Swap the standard cabin air filter for one made with activated

charcoal.

Or you could simply hold your breath. You'll be completely safe from the

worst that's lurking in your car. As for the danger of passing out in the

passing lane, well, that's another matter.

© 2008 Rodale Inc. All rights reserved.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22360355/

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