NEW CAR SMELL is dangerous!! (It contains VOC's!!)

October 7, 2005

Learned today that the " NEW CAR SMELL " can actually make you sick since it

contains VOC's (Volatile Organic Compounds)......Is there anything out there

that doesn't hurt you???

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/whatstuff/stuff/8020stuff.html

May 20,

2002

Volume 80, Number 20

CENEAR 80 20 p. 45

ISSN 0009-2347

WHAT'S THAT STUFF?

NEW CAR SMELL

VOCs account for the characteristic 'newness'

STEVE RITTER

There's something about the smell of a new car. To many people, the leathery,

plasticky aroma that hits you when you slide behind the wheel is a pleasurable

scent. Seductive. Perhaps even addictive. On the other hand, to a few people the

smell is malodorous, particularly to someone who has an acute chemical

sensitivity.

SMELL OF THE ROAD Brown sets up monitoring equipment to measure total VOCs in a

car.

CSIRO PHOTO

Exactly what gives rise to new car smell? The answer, not surprising to

chemists, is a complex mixture of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), primarily

alkanes and substituted benzenes along with a few aldehydes and ketones.

Nearly every solid surface inside a vehicle is a fabric or plastic that is held

together in part with adhesives and sealers. Outgassing of residual solvents and

other chemicals from these materials leads to a dilute sea of VOCs floating

about in the passenger compartment. The same holds true for new airplanes,

homes, and offices.

A standard measure for automakers is to keep the gross amount of VOCs emitted by

the textiles and flexible plastics low enough to prevent repeated fogging of

window interiors. Each car manufacturer has its own standard for total VOCs in

cars, one car company spokesman says, but he is unaware of any government

standards regulating air quality inside new vehicles.

Individual components of new car smell probably aren't harmful at the

concentrations found in cars, but the cumulative effects of long-term exposure

to the total mix of VOCs could pose health problems. Fortunately, high

concentrations of these compounds quickly dissipate just a few months after

manufacture. And although VOC concentrations can reach unhealthy levels in a

closed vehicle on a warm day, the air-exchange rate in a car is high when

someone opens a door, rolls down a window, or turns on the air conditioner.

Measurements for window fogging don't provide a breakdown of the chemical

composition of air in new cars, however. Commentators in the media and on the

Internet, as well as auto industry chemists contacted by C & EN, ascribe the

pleasant scent of new car smell mostly to phthalate plasticizers used in

polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or other plastics. However, bis(2-ethylhexyl)

phthalate, generally used in PVC, is not very volatile. And the few publicly

avail-able studies that identify VOCs in new cars don't report phthalates among

the primary components of the total VOC mixture.

One such study, reported this past December, was carried out by K. Brown

and Min Cheng of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research

Organization (CSIRO). The study took a look at VOCs in three new 1998 vehicles

by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis of air samples taken from the

cars after they had been sealed for several hours. The cars were resampled at

various intervals for up to two years.

The CSIRO researchers detected 30 to 40 VOCs in the cars, the most prevalent

being toluene, acetone, xylenes, styrene, 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene, various C5 to

C12 alkanes, ethylbenzene, and ethylene glycol butyl ether. Total VOC

concentrations for the cars were initially as high as 64 mg per m3 of air. For

one of the cars, which was a few weeks older because it had been imported, the

initial total VOC level was 2.1 mg per m3. These values correspond to the

parts-per-million to parts-per-billion range.

As a comparison, the report notes that total VOCs in the indoor air of new

buildings is on average 20 to 40 mg per m3, while established buildings have VOC

levels generally below 1 mg per m3. Negative sensory effects--headaches;

drowsiness; nausea; respiratory distress; and eye, nose, and throat

irritation--are likely to occur at concentrations above about 10 mg per m3,

according to the report.

The total VOC concentrations in the cars fell off exponentially over time, the

CSIRO researchers note, reaching about 1.5 mg per m3 after six months. Two cars

tested after two years had about 0.4 mg per m3 of total VOCs. Outdoor air

measured next to the cars was about 0.1 mg per m3. There also is a temperature

dependence to the VOC level: As the temperature rises inside the car, so does

the total VOC concentration.

Not all of the VOCs are necessarily related to original materials in the

passenger compartment, the CSIRO report points out. Benzene and other compounds

from fuel or exhaust and siloxanes from cleaning products can contribute

significantly to total VOCs.

CSIRO is considering developing a green air label to help consumers choose

environmentally friendlier environments--such as cars, airplanes, offices, and

homes--that have potentially healthier indoor air. Indeed, automakers try to

eliminate parts that give off high levels of VOCs.

THE OUTCOME of these efforts is that some new cars just don't smell like new

cars anymore. But therein lies the twisted irony of human nature: A host of

air-freshener products with new car scent are designed to keep cars smelling

showroom fresh indefinitely. None of these products, sold at car washes and

automotive supply stores, has an ingredient list on the label--as " household

products, " ingredient labels aren't required--and companies contacted by C & EN

would not divulge their proprietary secrets.

One fragrance industry spokesman tells C & EN that these products typically

contain a small amount of the fragrance oil on a blotter card, in a gel, or

diluted with water and/or alcohol. Simple fragrances may have only a few

fragrance ingredients, generally aldehydes, esters, and ketones.

One of the first of these scents developed was the smell of treated leather, the

spokesman notes. Tanned leather tends to give off a slightly rank odor, he says,

so tanneries typically add artificial fragrance to the leather to keep it

smelling fresh--think of the smell inside a shoe shop. The idea apparently

caught on with some automakers, which have been known to add leather scent and

other fragrances to cars.

Aromatherapy aside, new car owners should enjoy the original scent while it

lasts. For the health conscious, Brown suggests they should " make sure there is

plenty of outside air entering the vehicle while they drive for at least six

months after the vehicle has been purchased. "

---------------------------------

for Good

Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.

October 7, 2005

Almost forgot to add: The physician who informed me of this told me that the

symptoms mirror " Sick Building Syndrome " .......very interesting since in

addition to toxins, mold can also produce and mix with glue in wallpaper to form

VOC's.

Murtaugh <johnjmurtaughtoxicmold@...> wrote:Learned today that the

" NEW CAR SMELL " can actually make you sick since it contains VOC's (Volatile

Organic Compounds)......Is there anything out there that doesn't hurt you???