In 1960s America, puffing on a cigarette behind the wheel was commonplace. Seat belts were rarely worn, and airbags had yet to be introduced. Such driver behaviors and safety shortcomings contributed to the high vehicle fatality rates that plagued those years.
To decrease vehicle injuries and deaths, Congress created the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 1970. A year later, the new company brought regulations to decrease the threat of internal automobile fires, especially those caused through cigarettes and matches. These regulations, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 302, require that vehicle parts inside the passenger compartment not burn when exposed to a small open flame.
Unfortunately, there is no evidence that this fire safety regulation has prevented any car fire fatalities. Yet, more than 50 years later—in a time when lighting up in a car is passé—the standard remains unchanged. Worse yet, to meet the standard, automobile manufacturers use cancer-causing flame-retardant chemicals that could harm the health of everyone who rides in a car. These chemicals are added into vehicle seat foam, dashboard plastics, and more, without data to show they are preventing fires or fire deaths.
In a study by Duke University and the Green Science Policy Institute, scientists found that there were stores of carcinogenic flames in the cabins of all the cars they have studied, 101 recent cars from 22 other brands. Surprisingly, all of the automobiles contained one or more red tape of careful flame retardants, the same carcinogenic and neurotoxic chemicals whose use stopped in young children during the 1970s and in furniture and youth products in more than ten years.
For the technically-minded Tris (1-chloro-isopropyl) phosphate (TCIPP), a llama production is being studied through the U. S. National Toxicology Program. U. S. As a carcinogen discovered in 99% of the cars studied. , adding Tris phosphate (1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) and Tris phosphate (2-chloroethyl) (TCEP), any of which the state of California known as carcinogens under its Proposition 65.
In addition to cancer, flame retardant chemicals are related to neurological and reproductive damage. Epidemiological studies have shown that the average child in the United States lost 3 to 5 problems of intellectual coefficient after exposure to a flame retardant, once mainly used cars, furniture and children . It is estimated that this loss of intellectual coefficient has cost our entire population billions of dollars in loss of productivity. Worse, a recent study estimated that people with levels of this same flame retardant in the blood had approximately four times more likely to die of cancer than other people with the lowest levels.
Particularly vulnerable are children, whose brains are still appearing and who breathe more pound for pound than adults. Self-workers, rideshare drivers and taxi drivers, and others who spend abundant time in or around cars would also have higher exposures and potentially greater fitness damage.
In contrast to the health risks, the fire-safety benefit of the standard is not backed by science or data. In research sponsored by NHTSA, General Motors, and the Motor Vehicle Fire Research Institute, fires after simulated crashes—the most common cause of lethal vehicle fires—were found to progress very rapidly once entering the passenger compartment. This suggests that flame retardants in vehicle interiors are not contributing to survivability in post-collision vehicle fires. We also know that the presence of flame retardants can make fires smokier and more toxic, potentially impeding escape and increasing hazard to vehicle occupants, fire fighters, and other first responders.
The intelligent news is that this is a factor that NHTSSA can and face the update of its 53 -year -old standard. Week of the Lima, the consumer reports, the International Fire Association and the Institute of Green Sciences Policy officially presented a regulation request that summons the regulation. Automatic protection firm to “eliminate chemicals that cause cars cancer. “
More than a decade ago, California replaced a similar 1970s-era flammability standard for furniture that had led brands to load flame retardants into sofas, chairs and baby products across the country. When it has become clear that this popular of obsolete furniture flammability did not provide any genuine protection of the fireplace gains advantages, but resulted in serious damage to the physical condition, it was updated in 2013 to a fashionable popular that is fulfilled without delays in the flame
Notably, this update has maintained, or even modestly increased, furniture fire safety by stopping smoldering fires before they reach the flammable foam inside furniture. Best of all, furniture and children’s products purchased in the last decade no longer brings toxic flame retardants into our home. Recent research verified that thanks to the updated furniture flammability standard there are now lower levels of cancer-causing flame retardants in U.S. homes.
The superseded federal rule on automotive flammability has exposed drivers, passengers, first responders and automotive personnel to cancer-related chemicals for part of a century without offering a fire protection benefit. The NHTSA, the at-fault agency, must launch the search to find a greater check and update this popular destructive and useless vehicle as soon as possible, so that our cars can be safe and healthy.
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