The air we breathe inside cars is contaminated with pollutants known as “flame retardants”, including some potentially carcinogenic ones, suggests a scientific study published this Tuesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. This is due to the fact that the automobile industry incorporates such chemical substances into seat foam, despite this option not offering a proven benefit in the event of a fire, scientists say.
“The most important message we take away from this study is that people around the world are being exposed to chemical compounds – most of which are carcinogenic, neurotoxic and endocrine disruptors – inside the cars themselves. These substances are used based on flammability standards that are more than five decades old, so it is necessary to update these rules so that vehicles are simultaneously safe against fire and safe in terms of chemical products”, co-author Lydia Jahl explains to PÚBLICO , senior researcher at the Green Science Policy Institute, in the United States (USA).
The scientists asked the owners of 101 cars produced in the USA from 2015 onwards – that is, vehicles considered recent – to place a silicone band around the rear view mirror for a period of seven days. This procedure did not impair visibility while driving. Of these participants, 51 also collected a small sample of foam from the bottom of the car seat.
“We wanted to look for flame retardants present not only in the foam on vehicle seats, but also in the air itself. To do this, we asked our participants (if they were willing and able!) to get under the bench and cut a small piece of foam so that the flame retardants could be analyzed directly. [no laboratório]. Flame retardants are present in the air because they are released or evaporated from materials into the air. From there, they can also fall in the form of dust, or particles”, says Lydia Jahl.
Scientists found flame retardants – a chemical compound that, as the name suggests, has anti-flammable properties – inside all the vehicles analyzed. Of this total, 99% of the vehicles contained a type of flame retardant considered potentially carcinogenic, TCIPP. Other potentially harmful substances associated with neurological and reproductive damage have also been identified.
“Considering that the average driver spends an hour in the car every day, this constitutes a significant public health problem. It is particularly worrying for drivers on longer journeys, as well as for child passengers, who breathe more air than adults”, says the study’s first author, Rebecca Hoehn, a scientist at Duke University in the United States, cited in a press release.
Around half of the cars were tested in both summer and winter. The problem worsens with heat, scientists say, as the release of gases from interior components, such as seat foam, increases with higher temperatures.
“Our work is unique not only because it analyzed flame retardants in recently produced vehicles, but also because it analyzed temperature dependence (finding more flame retardants at higher temperatures, as expected due to the chemical properties of flame retardants), and confirmed that the flame retardants used in vehicle seat foam leave the seats and enter the air”, summarizes Lydia Jahl.
Lydia Jahl suggests not only opening the windows “for a few minutes” when getting into the car, especially on hot days, but also limiting the internal air circulation inside cars (a device that, in practice, causes pollutants rotate and remain suspended in the cabin). Parking in the shade, whenever possible, is also a good idea. The scientist also encourages cleaning your hands after car trips, especially before meals.
“What is really needed, however, is to reduce the amount of flame retardants that are added to cars. Traveling to work should not pose a risk of cancer and children should not breathe chemicals that can harm their brain when they are on the way to school”, observes the researcher, cited in a statement.
And in the European Union?
In the United States (USA), flame retardants are added to seat foam to comply with a federal automobile safety standard created in the 1970s. According to the scientific article, the diploma remains unchanged half a century later. Such substances are also “often” found in the European automobile industry, says scientist Lydia Jahl, when asked whether the Portuguese should also be aware of the issue of flame retardants.
“Our publication is also relevant to European readers because there are often shared vehicle materials and parts between the US and the EU, and manufacturers in both locations are following similar open flame flammability tests that lead, firstly, the use of flame retardants. Many older publications confirmed the use of flame retardants in vehicles in the European Union”, says the researcher, in a response by email.
