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Is your car giving you a headache? It could be the fumes from the plastics inside or the fuel and its byproducts.

These days, we spend a lot of time driving. And, now that our kids have busy schedules, chances are we’re shuttling them around town frequently, too. The result is that we’re spending more time than ever inside our cars! Generally, we’re doing our best to be safe by wearing seat belts, putting little ones in car seats, and driving defensively.

But accidents are not the only health hazards created by cars. Our vehicles can be filled with and produce numerous dangerous chemicals, such as those that cause "new car smell" and polluting emissions.

Even idling your car in the garage, where pollutants can build up, can have contaminating–and, sometimes, dangerous–consequences.

Beware of the "New Car Smell"

Admittedly, "new car smell" gives one a euphoric feeling. As it happens, though, there’s more in those fumes than the excitement of owning new wheels. Scientific Instrument Services (SIS) identified over 100 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air inside a brand-new Lincoln Continental. (SIS took three air samples, at different times of day and at different temperatures, on one summer day and one fall day.)

The chemicals in the fumes include toluene and styrene, which can damage the human brain and nervous system and liver, and benzene, a known human carcinogen. SIS found that the high concentration of VOCs–along with the new car smell–declined after two months, but the chemical levels rose when the temperature increased.

Inside Air Emissions

The gases (carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxides) and particles that global warming and smog create can make it difficult to breathe and can increase the risk for heart disease and cancer. "It is our best estimate that more people are being killed by air pollution from traffic than from traffic crashes," says Carnegie Mellon University professor Devra Lee Davis, co-author of a study on the immediate health benefits of reducing greenhouse gases, particularly auto emissions, in the August 2001 Science. Exhaust pollutants can also pose a danger in garages, inside cars, and even inside the home.

Carbon Monoxide: An Insidious Threat

During the Blizzard of 1996, some people kept warm inside cars with the motors running and, in some cases, with tailpipes unknowingly blocked by snow banks. As a result, 25 people in Philadelphia and New York–including one four-year-old girl whose grandmother thought her sleeping until she wouldn’t awaken–were overcome by carbon monoxide, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless, odorless and tasteless gas that suffocates the body by taking oxygen’s place in the bloodstream. CO poisoning symptoms–headache, dizziness, confusion, nausea, shortness of breath–mimic those of the common flu, confusing diagnosis. For example, a quarter of patients complaining of flu-like symptoms at the University of Louisville Medical Center actually had CO poisoning, one study found.

Pregnant women, developing fetuses, and newborns absorb CO into their bloodstream at even higher rates than others, according to a report by the University of Arizona School of Public Health.

Fifty-seven percent of unintentional CO poisoning deaths occur in automobiles. Snow-blocked tailpipes are just one way that CO can pose a threat. CO can build up in garages when cars are left idling, and the gas can enter homes through connecting doors. CO can even enter moving cars through leaks in the exhaust system, adversely affecting the driver’s coordination, judgment, and reaction time. For more information on carbon monoxide, visit the EPA’s website or see the Checklist for the Prevention of Carbon Monoxide (CO) Poisoning published by the Centers for Disease Control.

Public Enemy Number One: Diesel Exhaust

While few cars use diesel fuel in the United States, many of our children ride diesel buses and our roads are filled with diesel trucks. In the United States, diesel exhaust is the number one source of carcinogenic pollution in the environment, according to Environmental Defense. What’s more, a study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology  in 2000 reported that diesel exhaust particles not only exacerbate existing asthma cases, but may also create new cases.

We usually think of vehicle exhaust as an outdoor pollutant. That’s not necessarily so, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). "[Children] are the ones getting dosed with diesel riding to school," says NRDC senior scientist Gina Solomon, primary author of the January 2001 report, No Breathing in the Aisles: Diesel Exhaust Inside School Buses.

 NRDC found up to 4 times as much diesel exhaust inside school buses as in a car traveling directly in front of the bus. Furthermore, the diesel exhaust levels inside the bus were 23 to 46 times higher than levels believed to pose a "significant cancer risk" by the EPA.

Fuel Additives: MTBE and Ethanol

Ever since passage of the Clean Air Act of 1990 requiring reformulated gasoline to contain two percent oxygen by weight to reduce smog, MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) and other oxygenates, such as ethanol, have been added to gasoline.

MTBE, as it turns out, is a suspected carcinogen that doesn’t break down in water. As a result, MTBE, is now the most common contaminant in ground water in the United States, the National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL)  reports. "As little as a tablespoon in an Olympic-sized pool makes water taste and smell like turpentine," reported the Associated Press in January 2001.

MTBE continues to impact the environment long after the source has been eliminated. "In fact, some of the contamination that is showing up in water sources now may derive from leaks that occurred up to ten years ago," EPA official Robert Perciasepe told Reuters. New York State will ban MTBE in 2004, and California after December 31, 2002. The EPA, now convinced that the additive’s hazards outweigh its benefits, has recommended a complete phase-out.

Grain-based ethanol, the anticipated replacement for MTBE, may not be a better alternative for the environment. Adding ethanol to gasoline reduces carbon monoxide and VOC emissions, but increases nitrogen oxide emissions, which create ozone.

As long as we rely on petroleum to fuel our vehicles, there will be some health impacts. However, there are things we can do to keep our families safer inside our cars and our homes.

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