Worried moms call for car seat safety action from U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
Scientist offers tips to limit exposure to toxins in cars, infant seats
Sarah Syjud, 37, of St. Clair, Michigan has two young kids and worries about the safety of their car seats and her car — joining firefighters, bipartisan lawmakers and consumer watchdogs pleading with federal regulators to stop the use of flame retardants that slowly poison drivers and their passengers.
Already U.S. officials have changed the flammability standard to improve the safety of furniture so carcinogenic flame retardants from our couches no longer off-gas into our homes.
Now, scientists say, it’s time to take action on motor vehicles and car seats.
“The foam in your vehicle seats, both infant car seats and normal seats for adults, is generally made of polyurethane foam that make them comfortable and highly flammable,” said Lydia Jahl, senior scientist at the Green Science Policy Institute, a non-profit organization based in Berkeley, Calif.
Added into that foam, not chemically bound to it, are flame retardants that off-gas into the air inside the car, she said. These chemicals are used in plastics, too.
“Flame retardants will off-gas for the life of vehicle,” Jahl said. “We didn't find a decreasing trend with vehicle model year.”
This is not about passengers getting something as simple as headaches, she said. The impact is more insidious, changing thyroid hormone levels, behavior in children and reducing IQ (intelligence quotient), she said.
“Flammability standards were put in place 50 years ago,” Jahl said. “We have learned these chemicals are harmful and the federal standards don't alway provide a fire safety benefit. About a decade ago, our furniture flammability standard changed. We know our furniture is safer now without flame retardants.”
Duke University researchers involved too
Under scrutiny is a 1971 vehicle flammability standard for cars and car seats that federal lawmakers criticize as outdated.
A peer-reviewed study led by Duke University and the Green Science Policy Institute, and published in Environmental Science and Technology in May, found harmful flame retardants in all vehicles tested. The chemicals are linked to infertility, pregnancy complications and neurological problems, researchers said.
Lawmakers this month sent a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to change the vehicle flammability standard that results in car manufacturers adding flame retardant chemicals—including those known or suspected to cause cancer—to seat foam and other materials.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, along with U.S. Reps. Morgan Griffith, R-Virginia, and Doris Matsui, D-California, signed the letter dated Aug. 7 calling for action.
Even the International Association of Fire Fighters have joined the campaign for change, saying, “…these harmful chemicals do little to prevent fires for most uses and instead make the blazes smokier and more toxic for victims, and especially for first responders.”
Smoking in cars was commonplace, and vehicle fires inside cars far more frequent, when the safety standard was adopted, but no one can say if the standard ever provided any benefit, said Arlene Blum, executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute, in a news release.
“What is certain is that these chemicals pose a serious health risk to drivers, passengers, workers, and especially to children,” she said.
In a statement to Shifting Gears, a spokesperson for NHTSA acknowledged that the letter has been received but did not provide a timeframe for response or action. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg oversees NHTSA.
Consumer Reports has led a petition now with more than 32,000 signatures asking federal regulators to “get cancer-causing chemicals out of cars.” Consumer Reports is one of dozens of organizations to sign a letter to NHTSA.
The proposed change would reflect similar changes to California’s flammability standard for furniture and baby products, which was updated to be met without flame retardants.
Children at risk
Taking immediate action and changing the federal regulation is a “no brainer,” for the oversight agency, William Wallace, associate director of safety policy for Consumer Reports, told Shifting Gears.
“We know the agency is underfunded and has a lot of regulations that need updating, but this one seems like a relatively clear fix,” Wallace said. “Upholstered furniture was loaded up with flame-retardant chemicals too. But now we have technology that protects people’s fire safety and health. It seems like there’s a clear pathway.”
NHTSA must start working on this issue immediately, he said.
“This standard applies to all vehicle interior materials, from the seats of the car and fabric on the sides of the car doors to child car seats,” Wallace said.
“Children are much more susceptible to lower doses of chemicals. We know it takes smaller doses to harm them,” he said, noting that a 2022 study by the non-profit Ecology Center based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, found that car seats still contain these hazardous chemicals.
“Over time, this causes cancer. As soon as we know the source of a problem, we should address it,” Wallace said.
Anything to help our children
Sarah Syjud has a 3-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter, and she said parents are counting on federal regulators to limit chemical exposure of children when possible.
“I have a son who has some sensory issue and speech delays,” Syjud said. “Anything that's going to help my kids short term, long term. I don't want them exposed to anything that's going to harm them at all.”
Syjud switched baby bottles because of concern about plastics issues, she said. “Any little thing I can do to help my children's health and keep them healthy would be great. My kids have been pretty sick the first year of their life … It makes me wonder.”
Safety tips for parents now
The scientist from the Green Science Policy Institute advised parents to open car doors and allow the vehicle to air out prior to putting children in the car, allowing gases inside to spill out of the vehicle.
Jahl also suggested that parents always wash the hands of their children after they’ve been in car seats. Dust tends to collect flame retardant, and children touch that dust, she said.
Hot cars have more off-gassing inside, she said. So opening car doors and windows and airing out those vehicles before entering is more important than air-conditioning immediately, Jahl said.
“I’m thinking just cooling off the car is totally fine,” said Syjud, who said she plans to change her behavior since learning of the chemical concern. “If I can do simple things like roll down the windows and wash hands, that’s easy and takes 2 seconds. I’ll do it.”
Parents on high alert, making changes
Marci Dambacher, 49, of Port Huron, Michigan, said many parents think daily of environmental issues that impact their children — and they count on federal regulators to protect America’s families.
“It makes me feel better that they're looking at it,” she said. “It gives me a little more faith that they really do care, the people who are working to remove these chemicals.”
As a parent with a daughter who still uses a car seat, Dambacher said she is aware of potential chemical threats in her immediate surroundings, having changed laundry detergent and home cleaning solutions in the home.
This campaign involving cars and car seats shows parents must be vigilant, she said.
“I think that it the responsible thing to do, to get rid of the stuff that's causing cancer and neurological disorders,” Dambacher said. “I was born in 1975, so I was exposed to these chemicals. And now my daughter is. When it’s time for Quill to have a baby, that’s three generations of exposure to flame retardant chemicals.”
New issues of concern: PFAS
Patrick Morrison, chief of field services for the International Association of Fire Fighters, said in a news release in June, that firefighters are concerned that flame retardants contribute to “their very high cancer rates”
The harmful chemicals do little to prevent fires for most uses and instead make the blazes smokier and more toxic for victims, and especially for first responders, Morrison said. “I urge NHTSA to update their flammability standard to be met without flame retardant chemicals inside vehicles.”
The Green Science Policy Institute studies a variety of issues, including forever chemicals known as PFAS, which have contaminated land and water in Michigan throughout the country.
In March 2024, the Detroit Free Press reported levels of PFAS in tested North Kent County residents' blood were higher than national averages — and the more unfiltered well water they drank contaminated with the nonstick compounds, the higher their blood contamination, based on data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Check for car seat chemicals
Here's the 2022 report where parents can learn which car seats have flame retardants and PFAS: https://www.ecocenter.org/our-work/healthy-stuff-lab/reports/toxic-inequities-2022-car-seat-report Parents are encouraged to check with manufacturers directly about current models.
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