I hate cars as much as the next sane person. That being said… Is there anything that doesn’t potentially cause cancer anymore? It makes it hard to take seriously, because if I did then I’d be paranoid about everything and my anxiety would be fucking overwhelming. Seems every day we find something seemingly harmless can cause cancer and it feels almost surreal.
That’s because pretty much everything does cause cancer eventually. That’s just a consequence of how cellular division works. The trick is knowing how much exposure to any given thing is needed to cause cancer, and whether you’re likely to reach that threshold before you die of anything else.
Yet another reason to buy imported cars.
It likely isn’t any different in imported models, flame retardant materials are a very basic and very important safety feature.
Also, it is surprisingly hard to import a car in the US. I’d kill for decent hot hatch that wasn’t $40k.
Adding to this, unless you did the importing yourself, it’s still subject to the exact same regulations. Under the law, Hondas are domestic (made in Ohio). Lexuses (made in Japan) are imported, but have to meet all of the same requirements to be sold en masse. This includes federal (including safety standards) and state (most famously, California fuel efficiency requirements).
Cars suck but I’ve been spending too much time in them and now I’m too stupid to explain why
Not sure exactly why you’re getting downvoted as that was essentially the point of the article:
Flame retardant chemicals off-gas or leach from the seat and interior fabrics into the air, — especially in hot weather, when car interiors can reach 150 degrees Fahrenheit.
Advocates argue that the risks of these chemicals outweigh the benefits.
But health researchers have found that the average U.S. child has lost up to 5 IQ points from exposure to flame retardants in cars and furniture. And adults with the highest levels of flame retardants in their blood face a risk of death by cancer that is four times greater than those with the lowest levels, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The flame retardant thing is baffling me, anyway. Flame retardant fabrics/plastics in a vehicle either toting around 10-20 gallons of monumentally flammable gasoline, or hundreds of kWh of lithium batteries. Sure, chief, the fabrics will keep it from catching on fire…
I think many may now be too young to remember, but in the 70s and 80s, this was a big issue.
NY Times, 11 June, 1983 - DEMAND INCREASES FOR FIRE-SAFE CLOTHING
Clothing that can erupt into flames is coming under increasing scrutiny of consumer and fire safety organizations. They say Federal regulations governing the safety of fabrics used in clothing are too weak to protect the people who are most vulnerable: the elderly.
Those who most often suffer serious injury or death from clothing fires, safety experts say, are retired people who spend many hours of the day in such loose-fitting garments as bathrobes or housecoats. With the exception of children’s sleepwear, for which special regulations were decreed in the 1970’s, Federal standards allow clothing manufacturers to use all but the most extremely flammable fabrics.
Plastic fibers can melt to your skin, which isn’t great considering you’re in contact with the seats and carpets of the car. In an emergency, you’re not prepared to deal with additional complications like that.
The article I linked here is pretty good, so I recommend reading it if you aren’t familiar with this issue from back then. It will really help give you the other side of the issue to see why these chemicals are there to begin with.
additional complications like that
“That”: your pants become bonded to your skin and the car seat
😬
It was never about outright preventing fires.
It was always about simply giving passengers the best chance to escape before the fire overwhelms all of the flame-retardant measures.
That said, the carcinogenic and neurological effects do kinda demand that a different solution be found right fucking quick.
Like cotton/linen fabrics? Cotton is pretty naturally flame resistant. Probably can’t help you on all the plastics in a modern car interior, though.
All I’m hearing is that you don’t appear to fully understand the conditions under which the materials are mandated to withstand extreme heat and combustion
