Who says summer, sun and vacation, also says suffocating heat in the car. It’s a very bad time to spend on vacation, getting into the passenger compartment without burning your calves and thighs, then managing not to suffocate with heat by opening the windows wide or praying for the air conditioning to take effect. . Beyond the discomfort, it seems that the heat in our interiors also has a deleterious effect on health. This is particularly good information to take as the holidays approach, when our long car journeys are likely to increase.
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Toxic products supposed to slow down fires
A recent American study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology revealed that heat promotes the circulation of a toxic gas in cars. The cause? Several parts of the passenger compartment of many cars contain flame retardants, such as organophosphate compounds. These products are also used in furniture foams, electronic devices, and clothing.
Among these products supposed to slow down fires, triphosphate (TCIPP) would be present in the air of 99% of the vehicles tested. To reach this conclusion, researchers from the universities of Duke, Berkeley and Toronto suspended a sample of silicone on the interior rearview mirror of recent vehicles for a week, then analyzed the substances found on this sample.
Potentially carcinogenic
At normal temperature, the concentration was the same as that inside our homes. But when temperatures rise, it explodes, multiplying between two and five times more than usual. We learn in particular that the presence of TCIPP in the seat foams reinforces this effect. The problem is that TCIPP is potentially carcinogenic, according to a report published in 2023 by the US Department of Health. It causes liver and uterine tumors in rats and mice. The danger is therefore to increase the risk of cancer in humans.
People who are used to making long car journeys in hot weather, and their children, are particularly exposed to this risk. Researchers therefore recommend trying to control the heat in your vehicle as best they can, by parking it in the shade for example, opening the windows wide to circulate the air before starting and waiting outside your vehicle or turning on the air conditioning beforehand.
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