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'New car smell' is the scent of carcinogens
- ginko 6y agoEver since I was a kid I hated the smell of new cars. It boggles my mind how anyone could like that noxious solvent smell.
- hanniabu 6y agoYup, the smell always gave me nasty headaches.
- gugagore 6y agoSome people really like the smell of gasoline or jet fuel or rubbing alcohol, or acetone, which is the order in which I would rank how much I like them from mind-boggling to okay-that-smell-is-kind-of-nice.
- minitoar 6y agoI like gasoline but weirdly avgas is gross for me.
- kleton 6y agoIt's amazing that they still allow lead in that.
- minitoar 6y agoIt’s actually required to have lead. It’s hilariously called “low lead”.
- StillBored 6y agoThe LL avgas situation is odd because while we have quite a number of additives to reduce knocking (ugh MTBE) valve erosion has been one of the listed reasons for not using it. Yet, most aircraft engines have strict servicing guidelines and mandating replacement valves/seats with a more resistant design could have been done 40 years ago as part of engine overhaul/rebuild guidelines. Then the usage would have slowly declined. Yes its expensive, but so is GA aircraft maintenance. *MTBE was another of those chemicals where the replacement was quite likely just as bad if not worse than the original. Similar to the refrigerant bans where we went from a chemical that broke down in the atmosphere fairly quickly (and caused ozone holes doing it) to one that lingers basically for eternity and causes global warming.
- gruez 6y agoAFAIK that's only for general aviation (aka. people flying their cessnas), rather than jetliners.
- sgt 6y agoBurned two stroke oil!
- selimthegrim 6y agoI did as a kid but it went away after a few years
- avereveard 6y agopart of owning a busso engined alfa romeo is the 'alfa smell' - the blowback of gasoline in the cabin from an 80s' design engine brought into the two thousands kicking and screaming and I love it
- yummypaint 6y agoI feel like i have a normal palette and preferences for smells, but for some reason diesel exhaust (like from a school bus) has always been in my top 5. Makes me wonder how common this kind of thing is and how much random variation there is among people.
- slfnflctd 6y agoFascinating. Of all the 'sharp' smells in my environments over the years, diesel exhaust has always been one of the absolute harshest to me. Feels like it's actively damaging my lungs perceptibly in real time. It's the primary reason I keep my car's climate control on internal circulation almost constantly. I flinch whenever I detect the slightest trace. Maybe I got exposed to a little too much of it as a kid.
- sfink 6y agoI have that reaction to the exhaust that airplanes introduce to the cabin when reversing out of the gate before takeoff. It boggles my mind why all outside air isn't shut off when reversing. I get an instant headache and have difficulty breathing, and I'm generally not sensitive to much of anything.
- arsome 6y agoYuck, I hate diesel exhaust but that slight unburnt fuel smell from a 2 stroke small engine is what I'm all about.
- ticmasta 6y ago2-stroke exhaust and new tires... Maybe it's the association with memorable activities like visiting a motorcycle dealership with my dad as a kid, or a mowed lawn and warm summer rain? Meanwhile diesel exhaust makes me think of those cold, cold winter days, waiting for the car to warm up on an ice-cold vinyl seat...
- MayeulC 6y agoI hate diesel exhaust. New car smell makes me want to puke (and did, on numerous occasions, as a kid) so bad that I have to take breaks and open windows. The absolute worst is burnt heavy fuel like mazut, and other two-stroke engines that burn oil. It smells like cigarettes to me, but worse. On the other hand, gasoline is kind of nice to smell. Go figure, chemicals react weirdly with our sense of smell, I don't think it's wise to rely on it for synthetic compounds (cue bitter almond smell). Edit: And it is commonly accepted that odors are wired to memories, so living on a boat when I was young and having family members that smoke are probably linked to these sensations.
- dekhn 6y agoI am definitely an aficionado of distilled petroleum products although I wouldn't recommend sniffing gasoline.
- yks 6y agoMy favorite speculation along those lines is that people are addicted to motorcycling because they are addicted to gas fumes/exhaust (and I'm riding myself).
- userbinator 6y agoIf you grew up in the first half of the last century, chances are you'd recognise the smell of chlorinated solvents --- and they're even described as "sweet" by a lot of people. Due to their widespread use, many associated it with the smell of "clean". Unfortunately, they're also most if not all carcinogenic.
- gnulinux 6y agoSame, for some reason my uncle's car constantly smelled like that even after years of use. Not sure what causes it, whether it was intentional, but would make me nauseous!
- MengerSponge 6y agoYou can buy products with that scent. For example: https://www.chemicalguys.com/new-car-smell-air-freshener/new-car-scent.html https://www.chemicalguys.com/new-car-smell-air-freshener/new...
- anotheryou 6y agoSame. I also get headache and nausea from it. I'm totally fine in old cars.
- alpha_squared 6y agoSmell is tightly coupled with emotion and memory. I think that leads to things that smell bad being registered positively because of what that smell is associated with. A "new car smell" is a very big, emotional moment for people in the US; especially within the lower/middle-class, where new car purchases are uncommon and infrequent. You see this with food quite often, where those who grew up with certain foods/meals have a positive reaction to the scent of those foods while those who haven't can be very put-off by them.
- symlinkk 6y agoYes, the same reason is why some people hate the smell of cigarettes and others love it.
- Proven 6y agoOh let me panic before it's too late! (Of course even a millisecond spent in a new car would "expose" you. But that doesn't mean anything. Walk in the park exposes you to radiation.)
- dirtyoldmick 6y agoIt's worth the cancer. I love that smell.
- eugenekolo 6y agoI'm more surprised the average American only commutes 1 hr (total?) each day to work. Considering most cities during rush hour seem like they take 30 minutes to go 5 miles, and most Americans cannot afford to live near prosperous jobs.
- bobthepanda 6y agoMost Americans do not work in city center and can avoid driving the super congested trips into downtown. And most job growth in the US over the past years has been eds and meds, which are more dispersed and local.
- Cthulhu_ 6y agoMost Americans still spend a ton of time in their car though, thanks to sprawl, lack of public transit and urban design geared towards cars.
- ghaff 6y agoEven in engineering/tech, most people are probably commuting from suburban houses/apartments to suburban office parks. And while that can still involve congested traffic, most people would consider an hour each way a pretty long commute.
- thatfrenchguy 6y agoAnd now there is traffic everywhere and it’s impossible to do any sort of planning for having good public transit! Isn’t it awesome?
- bobthepanda 6y agoAn observation of reality is not an endorsement of it. That being said, a fair amount of transit cities are also multipolar and with generally long commutes; Paris and Tokyo come to mind.
- danans 6y ago> Most Americans do not work in city center and can avoid driving the super congested trips into downtown They often can't avoid very congested trips to the neighboring suburb where their job is located. Even if many jobs aren't located downtown, they are located in suburban industrial or office clusters that severely lack in public transit, and are subject to severe traffic congestion. Furthermore, the effect of this increasing dispersal of jobs has been to increase average commute times, not decrease them [1]. Anecdotally, over my career, I've experienced this sort of long suburb-to-suburb commute in states as varied as Michigan, Texas, Washington and California. 1. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Srvy_JobsProximity.pdf https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Srvy_Jo...
- everdrive 6y agoYet another reason to never buy new.
- timw4mail 6y agoSomeone has to buy new.
- mhh__ 6y agoThere are more than enough rich people who don't need to care and people who should know better for that to be a problem.
- forgotmypw17 6y agoSure, but it won't be me...
- wayneftw 6y agoI wonder if there is a higher rate of cancer among people who work around new cars, i.e. car sales people.
- skemper911 6y agoConvertible car, let in the fresh smog.
- teruakohatu 6y agoKeep in mind this is a meta-analysis using data published in papers that are up to 30 years old and from overseas including China, then applying it to California's carcinogen list (prop 65) and California commute times. I am sure a followup study will be done to see if this is actually a problem in the USA in 2021. The article is published here (Open access) : https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016041202100026X?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016041202... Edit: I found this news article from 2003 discussing the issue of carcinogenic new car smells and how manufacturers were trying to eliminate the the dangerous smells while simulating what consumers expect a new car should smell like: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15133792/new-car-smell/ https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15133792/new-car-smel...
- zests 6y agoCalifornia "may cause cancer warnings" may cause people to ignore "may cause cancer warnings". Is this coffee carcinogenic or cigarette carcinogenic?
- ratsmack 6y agoThe "This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer ..." warning is so common that I'm sure most people just ignore it.
- DennisP 6y agoIn other news, 600K people in the US die from cancer every year.
- josephcsible 6y agoThe point isn't that cancer doesn't matter. It's that by putting cancer warnings on things with a 1-in-a-trillion lifetime chance of causing cancer, you desensitize people to cancer warnings on things that actually do pose a significant cancer risk.
- fulafel 6y agoWow, hour per day driving on average. The spurious co2 emissions really boggle the mind.
- jcampbell1 6y agoThe truth is that cars are subjected to a clean room test for VOCs. The automakers can get VOCs to an undetectable level, but purposefully keep them just under the allowed threshold to create new car smell. Adjusting the amount of VOCs was often done by tweaking the formula for headliner adhesive. I know this sounds like a conspiracy, but people have a strong preference for new car smell. You can see that headliners have their own category for how much offgassing is allowed: https://www.issa.com/wp-content/uploads/VOC_Limits_Summary_19.pdf https://www.issa.com/wp-content/uploads/VOC_Limits_Summary_1... It is trivial to make a headliner that doesn’t offgas. With the stroke of a pen, the government could get rid of new car smell across the industry.
- DoingIsLearning 6y agoI suppose it's the same as car door design. Car doors could absolutely be designed to be shut in near silence, but people actually value the car door slamming noise as sign of quality/robustness. Most people would probably assume their car door is not properly closed if it was made to be more silent.
- henearkr 6y agoI think we agree it's stupid. The amount of accidents because of fingers caught in slammed car doors is ridiculous...
- mhh__ 6y agoThe sound of the door is more about the rhythm than the actual sound as per se - obviously this is difficult to convey via text, but a bad door is chaotic whereas the distinctive sound of an expensive car door shutting is effectively a sign that it was designed to sound exactly like xyz.
- minitoar 6y agoI love fake new car smell scent. They are all so different. Pine scent or lemon fresh is basically always the same. New car is always novel. I also love that it’s emulating a scent that’s from off gassing that we’ve known for years is probably terrible for you.
- knz 6y ago> I also love that it’s emulating a scent that’s from off gassing that we’ve known for years is probably terrible for you. Is an artificial air freshener much better from an air quality perspective though?
- minitoar 6y agoDunno, I just like the idea that it's a smell designed to emulate a potentially harmful manufacturing byproduct that people just happen to like. It would be like making cigarette car smell or something.
- Havoc 6y agoI thought this is something added artificially exactly because people associate it with brand new?
- civilized 6y agoA bit off-topic, but I hate, hate, HATE the smell of airports and airplane cabins. I don't know if it's jet fuel or what, but I am certain we will one day discover that the fumes cause all sorts of maladies. I feel vaguely nauseous for the entire day after getting off a plane, and don't feel myself again until a good night's sleep.
- carlmr 6y agoI have thought the same thing for a while. When you're at the airport it smells like fuel. Everyone's talking about the radiation, but I'm wondering if pilots and stewardesses aren't exposed to much worse through the cabin air.
- cameronh90 6y agoCabin air comes from the "bleed air", which is air from the compressor stage of the engine. Very rarely this air is noticeably contaminated due to engine issues, but I think it's valid to wonder if it's contaminated in a sub-perceptible way more often than that.
- drewwwwww 6y agothere are substantial unanswered questions about cabin air quality, both from long term chronic exposure as well as the acute occurrences known as “fume events.” not surprisingly, airlines, manufacturers, and the FAA are all working together to suppress a thorough understanding. the LA Times did a good investigatory piece at the end of last year: https://www.latimes.com/projects/toxic-chemicals-planes-covid-19-travel-woes/ https://www.latimes.com/projects/toxic-chemicals-planes-covi...
- paol 6y agoCabin air is renewed at a high rate form the outside. It will contain fumes when the airplane is on the ground, because airport air contains fumes. The vast majority of the time the airplane is at cruising altitude, though. That air is as clean as you are going to get on planet earth.
- 6y ago
- annoyingnoob 6y agoProp 65 went off the deep end a long time ago. When you call any and everything a carcinogen then people stop paying attention. I'm willing to take the risks to drink coffee for example. I know french fries are bad for me, but cancer isn't my first concern there.
- einpoklum 6y agoCan't they just grade the carcinogenic risk? Maybe color-code it into different levels?
- president 6y agoSeems it would make more sense to either ban the chemicals completely or do nothing at all. Most people have essentially learned to ignore the P65 warning and I have noticed that not all businesses are compliant with it anyway.
- annoyingnoob 6y ago> not all businesses are compliant with it anyway Pretty risky, just waiting for the wrong lawyer to notice.
- sfink 6y agoIt would increase cost of compliance -- or mostly everyone would just stick to the most extreme level, to cover their asses. Many things marked with the Prop 65 warning do not actually contain anything carcinogenic (or rather, since everything is carcinogenic to some degree, they contain no more than trace amounts.) Legally, if a business has a Prop 65 warning, they're safe; if they don't, they're not. The only teeth Prop 65 has against excessive warnings is that it makes consumers like me nervous, so it's better to not have it. If it were a little more sane -- like being based on actual exposure from reasonably expected usage -- then I think I'd like it, even if the list of chemicals is still a bit overzealous. The system is too heavily tilted in favor of exposing people to nasty crap, and I appreciate having something that pushes against it. It's a hard thing to do well, and legislating via ballot initiative is a blunt instrument. So the best we generally end up with is stuff like Prop 65, which does some good, some harm.
- 1-6 6y agoIf we're talking about VOC's here, then in-cabin air filters should have carbon in them so it can adsorb all those bad off-gassing.
- londons_explore 6y agoBut clearly they don't, because you can still smell it... Part of that will be because the fan doesn't run before you get into the vehicle... And part of it is because activated carbon absorbs only some of the smell-producing chemicals, and human noses are rather sensitive to even tiny amounts of stuff in the air.
- switch007 6y agoDo all new cars come equipped with activated carbon filters as standard?
- aidenn0 6y agoDefinitely not. Cabin air-filters are usually just tiny versions of the filters you have in your HVAC unit.
- zabzonk 6y agoWhat about "new laptop smell"?
- xyst 6y agoprobably not on the same level as a new vehicle, but the plastic wrapping/film that protects the laptop has to adhere to the surface somehow
- angry-tempest 6y agoI think that the proper hierarchy is as follows: new Magic card smell > new GPU smell >= new laptop smell > old book smell
- tvb12 6y agoI was going to mention the smell of opening a booster pack of trading cards! It was probably the same smell as opening a new video game and taking out the instruction booklet (back when they still printed those).
- code_duck 6y agoI've been around laptops which seem to be a health hazard. It makes sense they could expose users to harmful chemicals, since they're essentially a bunch of plastic and metals that get hot and have air blown over them into the room. Various flame retardants have been used in the past which have been phased out over health concerns, but manufacturers did this at different rates and many older machines manufacturered with various noxious chemicals are still in use. Who knows about what they use now (the last time I looked into this was c. 2013). TV sets have a similar history, as do space heaters and electric blankets. As part of various health problems, I have some sort of high sensitivity to fragrances and cleaning chemicals. I had a roommate with a Dell that would make the room smell like ozone and plastic. I looked into it and Dell used various chemicals on those models that they later pledged to discontinue. I couldn't be in the same room as his laptop for more than 5 minutes.
- lalaithion 6y ago> research has found that Californian car commuters can be exposed to above-acceptable levels of unhealthy chemicals during their daily work trips Whew! Good thing I'm not a Californian.
- bloopbloo 6y ago(southern) California cars get really hot year round. Therefore the exposure will be higher
- crtc 6y agoWhat about "Old Car Smell'?
- Lammy 6y agoThat’s more like B.O. and weed, so it will depend on the unique preferences of the car’s previous owner :)
- throwaway0a5e 6y agoThe smell of oil dripping on exhaust manifold that makes people who don't know the difference between flash point and autoignition temperature clutch their pearls.
- orange_tee 6y agoThe same chemical formaldehyde is responsible for the off-gassing from cheap furniture. That smell of chipboard (also called particleboard) that all the new cheap furniture is made of.
- derekp7 6y agoThe funny thing is that the furniture really isn't that cheap. I built a couple 3-drawer desks for a couple grand kids (48 x 16 inch top) out of solid wood with 1/4 inch plywood around the drawer unit, and only spent $130 on materials (this was at the beginning of the school year). Most flat-pack desks you see are starting around $350 or higher, for garbage board.
- dylan604 6y agoSomething you bought for $350 in a flatpack box would easily be > $1000 in real wood and weigh one decimal point place to the right more.
- derekp7 6y agoThat is something that really surprised me, how light this "real wood" desk was (made from Poplar wood), compared to another similar desk that the wife bought a few months earlier (before the covid at-home back-to-school rush caused a desk shortage).
- magikaram 6y agoFrom my experience, MDF and particleboard furniture usually weighs more due to the higher density of the wood and glue vs. traditional wood furniture.
- saiya-jin 6y agoNah, wooden stuff usually has thicker walls/everything, usually weighting significantly more. I guess we compare some old wooden furniture with similarly designed ikea particle board one. If its 1:1 then yes particle board should weight a bit more.
- traveler01 6y agoAH! Glad I'm only able to afford used cars... oh wait...
- isoskeles 6y agoHey, many people can't afford new cars, but that doesn't stop them from getting a loan. (Not saying you should.)
- traveler01 6y agoI had to get a loan to buy an used car. Economy here is like that...
- bggy00 6y agoSteve Jobs leased a new car every 6 months for decades, wonder if it harmed his health/was linked to his cancer at all: https://www.autoweek.com/car-life/but-wait-theres-more/a1704461/heres-why-steve-jobs-got-same-new-car-every-six-months/ https://www.autoweek.com/car-life/but-wait-theres-more/a1704...
- ilmiont 6y agoAnd yet almost everyone's smelt it and we're all still here.
- young_unixer 6y agoMaybe if we hadn't damaged our brain cells we wouldn't be using Javascript though.
- burnt_toast 6y agoHaving spent too much time in the car industry I've noticed each brand has it's own variant of "New Car Smell". A Hyundai doesn't smell like a Honda, nor does a Subaru smell like a Nissan. I know it's probably just due to differences in the manufacturing process but it's funny that we group them all together.
- forgotmypw17 6y agoYeah, it is horrifying to think about how much air pollution we inflict upon ourselves. It's very hard to stop even in a two-person household, because so many of the "products" most people in the Western world are used to buying and using since an early age are violators. I am blessed with being quite sensitive to most of them, so it's an endless struggle with partners and cohabitants. Basically anything bought new has it: furniture, clothes, cars, anything plastic, dyed, glued, particleboard. "Cleaning" products: sprays, detergents, most "soaps", shampoos, creams, conditioners, have this type of crap in them. Even most stuff which claims to be "eco-friendly" is bullshit, and has all the same crap in it if you look at the ingredients. And it feels like online there is a whole army of "rational scientific defenders" ready to jump into action anytime I mention it. It feels like there is a whole playbook for discrediting this type of comment, and calling into question how "scientific" it is, etc.
- metalliqaz 6y agothat's because you call it "this stuff" and bundle everything from new cars to soap into the same category. So you're just sensitive to every industrial material? it's hard to take seriously.
- 4eor0 6y agoIs it hard to take pollen allergies from dozens of different plants seriously? How about dust and smoke? How can someone be allergic to both! The temerity. It’s less about chemistry of the materials, more about the sensitivity of the squishy, arbitrary human body.
- forgotmypw17 6y agoPollen I don't avoid, because it's not a new substance. "Dust" allergies often have to do with the substances which are on the dust, which is covered above. Smoke is certainly not good for you. This squishy arbitrary human body is the only one I've got for today, so I avoid whatever I think may harm it, even if there is no dots on the i's and crosses on the t's with regards to scientific proof. If you look at the history of teflon, plastics, cigarettes, VOCs, synthetic food ingredients, you'll see that this strategy would have served a human well in the past, and it's the best one I can think of to follow for the foreseeable future.
- bloopbloo 6y agoIt’s good it’s up for the many to read, but this is not surprising to anyone who has remotely worked on chemical systems. I’ve only done Computer simulation of polymers. I haven’t even taken a single chemistry class past freshman year. And yet there’s no way anyone is going to convince me that smell is OK. That smell is the slow degassing of all the chemicals used in the production of the car. It will include foaming agents, plasticizers, solvents, curing agents, dyes, paints, etc. When I but a plastic baby bottle (we try to use glass, but for some things plastic works best) I always put it through several dishwasher cycles. I’ll never pour a warm liquid into it. And I always do a smell test to make sure there’s no unatural smell (rotted milk vomit I’m “ok” with. “Can’t place it” freaks me out) I always air out the car if I buy a new one (even used! God knows what’s in air fresheners and detailing products) by running the fan at 75% if I can’t have the window open.
- d33lio 6y agoMost people live too long to begin with - I'm okay relishing the smells and scents of modern society and not worrying too much about it. Yes, everything is killing us and we're all slowly dying - why not enjoy the ride?
- jpswade 6y agoIsn’t it mostly just glue?
- rightbyte 6y agoI have suspected this. When I spray my 22 yo car with anti-rust oil in the body it smells exactly like a new car for a while. No suprise it is chemicals that smell in a new car ... I kinda thought it was the leather.
- souprock 6y agoIt is the leather too, which is cured with truly horrible chemicals. Think about why your seats don't just rot like any normal animal skin would. That's the formaldehyde and hexavalent chromium.
- crazygringo 6y agoSo here's what I'd love if other people here could help me understand. Sensitivity to VOC's is extremely dependent on the person. My father, for example, had the carpet redone cheaply in his office, and worked there happily 8 hrs/day without smelling anything and without any ill effects. For me, on the other hand, the smell was noxious but bearable, but I'd start to feel lightheaded after about 15 minutes in there. My brother would get a terrible headache after just 5 minutes. (And this is us as adults, same size as him.) Memory foam (e.g. in a pillow) also affects me, even after it's offgassed for weeks. I don't smell a thing, but it gives me a burning sore throat after I'm close to it for a couple of hours. But again, zero effect on my dad. And so my big question is: I'm well aware that people have drastically different responses to VOC's. But does that mean VOC's harm people differently too, or are we all harmed the same? In other words, does my dad have some kind of "protective" genes where the VOC's don't bother him because they harm him less, so he doesn't avoid them? Or are my brother and I better off because we're super-sensitive to them, so we escape the harm he might be suffering? It seems like such an urgent public health problem, especially given how many people use memory foam mattresses and pillows. It just boggles my mind that I get a sore throat after just a couple of hours with one, while other people sleep peacefully all night.
- abarringer 6y agoIt seems the older generation is so much more tolerant of toxins than us younger ones. For instance, at company lunches it seems at least 50%+ of the 25-45yrs have allergies/glucose issues while the older generation pounds down whatever they want. I have so many friends that have crazy allergies and sensitivities to toxins and almost no boomers that do. Maybe all the weak boomers were weeded out in their youth with lawn darts and no bike helmets or something? Or more likely not exposed to so many toxins when younger?
- echelon 6y ago> Or more likely not exposed to so many toxins when younger? Or perhaps inversely, the older generation was exposed to more industrialized chemicals and their immune system developed a tolerance. Something akin to the hygiene hypothesis [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis
- varelse 6y agoBuy yourself an air quality monitor and experience the wonder of how fast your household air becomes dangerously crappy with the windows closed. The formaldehyde will be with us always apparently...
- renewiltord 6y agoSure, but how bad can it really be? It has existed for like 60 years and those people are still living to be 80.
- code_duck 6y agoA few years ago I found occasion to rent a car. The clerk noted I was lucky - it had only 400 miles. I thought that was great until I remembered what it meant. The car smelled strongly like glues, and unfortunately the windows were designed in a way that I couldn't get air blowing on my face. I was doing a run about an hour away to Los Alamos. While driving, I started feeling tense in the face. My arms were stiffening and my mouth going into a circular shape. I felt strange like I was going to pass out. I was so concerned that if I went home I might be calling an ambulance. Luckily there was a fire station . I couldn't figure out how to ring their doorbell and collapsed in the front. The EMTs there came out, stuck me in an ambulance and took me to the ER, where the doctors couldn't find anything wrong besides a low potassium level. I'm still wondering what happened exactly. I have some sort of sensitivity to all sorts of fragrances, especially synthetic, probably related to my immune/autoimmune diseases. It's extremely uncomfortable for me to be near air freshener, dryer sheets, laundry detergent, cologne, perfume, shampoo, hairspray, and other scented products. The fragrance industry has been hard at work expanding fragrance into new products as well, like garbage bags. Prior to the ER incident above I had been weakened by digestive problems (apparently the aftermath of celiac/precursor of type 1 diabetes) and weighed 8% under a healthy minimum weight, so I can't surmise it was 100% the car fumes.
- linuxftw 6y agoHi. Your symptoms (minus the collapse) sound very similar to a close friend of mine. Digestive problems continued until almost all foods were eliminated. A few things seemed to work over a period of a few months with a Dr's supervision. First, treatment for MTHFR. This was basically taking some methylated B vitamin available on Amazon, they're not very expensive. Next, great improvements were found with traditional chinese medicine. My friend found a practitioner from China trained in the 80s that lives in our area, rather than a western person. They prescribed a number of supplements to aid in digestion issues. The final component is electrolyte water. That seems to be the best way for my friend to stay hydrated. Since doing this, while still intolerant of certain perfumes and such, my friend is living a normal life now.
- code_duck 6y ago
- maerF0x0 6y agoTrue story, I learned I must be allergic/sensitive to "new car smell" the hard way. I threw up in my friend's parents new car. Like all over the back of their like <1 month old car. It has it advantages because used cars are cheaper.
- hyperpape 6y agoSo much hate for California's prop 95 in the comments, so few people noticing that the article referred to benzene and formaldehyde as meeting the thresholds. It doesn't matter what chemicals are included in prop 95, you can't deny that benzene is not a serious carcinogen. The only part that I'm not super clear on is the dosing information--the article used dosing information in micrograms/day, whereas OSHA gives occupational limits in terms of safe atmospheric concentrations for an 8 hour work day. The question becomes: are the RFDs used consistent with standard health authorities, or are they a super-conservative California threshold.
- SeanFerree 6y agoUnreal! I never thought of this, but it makes a lot of sense
- andy_ppp 6y agoWhat about new trainer smell? Same?
- albeit 6y agoThat's why I left my windows open in the garage when I got my current car.
- 1experience 6y agoBy now I have the heuristic that every strong artificial odour I smell is somehow toxic and I have created the muscle memory to step away and get fresh air without even thinking about it.
- Sparkyte 6y agoThat's horrifying. I prefer the new smell of PCB.
- exabrial 6y agoLike WiFi causes cancer in California or like Benzene causes cancer? To me it seems like it's the former, not the latter or we'd have a metric crap ton of people dying.
- EForEndeavour 6y agoHaving just picked up a very heavily new-car-smelling rental car in which to transport my firstborn from hospital sometime in the next two weeks, this was not a reassuring read. Here's hoping 20 minutes of exposure as a newborn doesn't have any lasting effects. All the same, I guess I'll blast the blowers on maximum with all doors open for a few minutes before we hit the road, and maybe drive with windows cracked.
- jiofih 6y agoThe study uses decades old data. Since the late 90s cars have very little smell, they actually use a perfume to imitate it.
- coryfklein 6y agoIsn't the appropriate procedure here to add a sticker and call it a day: > This product contains chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer
- vilhelm_s 6y agoSimilarly, newly built or renovated houses will have some "new house" smell, which is also VOCs. I have been told there is a cultural difference between China and the U.S., where Chinese people will let a house be empty for a few weeks to get rid of the smell before moving in (since the chemicals are believed to be bad for your health), while in the U.S. people don't seem to be concerned by them.
- Gravityloss 6y agoSomebody built a house from natural materials. He said that the biggest difference when he moved in was that it didn't feel new - there was none of that plastic / solvant smell.
- kenned3 6y agoI've always thought this was very obvious. I mean it is clear something is in the air if you can smell it.. and if you are in a new car and it smells, it must be glues, oils, etc. last new car i bought i left it sit outside with all the doors open to let it 'air out' until it did not smell.
- King-Aaron 6y agoThat's why I like my 1980's modified turbo car. Surely the smell of oil and fuel fumes seeping out the open wastegate are healthier ( /s )