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That Beloved New Car Smell May Be A Killer In Disguise
When people buy a new car and get into them for the first time, they describe a familiar 'new car smell' that makes quite a few smiles appear on faces and reminds us of the joys of life as we know it.
However, a recent study by a research team from the Beijing Institute of Technology and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has revealed that the fragrance we associate with new cars may be deadlier than we thought.
According to the study published in Cell Reports Physical Science by the research team, the smell we link with new cars may contain harmful chemicals including some that are known to cause cancer like Formaldehyde and Acetaldehyde.
The researchers tested out new cars by using several sensors that tested the quality of the air inside the cabin and detected various chemicals. The cars were sealed and parked outside for 12 consecutive days in what the researchers called varying environmental conditions.
The results of the testing were quite startling as the research teams found that the mix of chemicals in the air inside the cabins of the new cars posed a high potential health risk to owners.
The testing revealed that the buildup of these cancer-causing chemicals was rather quick and that it didn't take long for new cars to become a potential hazard for the people sitting inside them.
The researchers compared the levels of the volatile organic compounds inside the cabin after 12 days against Chinese safety standards which were used as a baseline for the automotive experiment.
As per the results of the research, Formaldehyde levels inside the cabin reached 34.9 per cent above the baseline levels. The volatile substance is a colourless and flammable gas at room temperature that has a strong odour and is used in embalming and various household products.
The levels of Acetaldehyde were even higher, around 60.5 per cent above the baseline Chinese safety standards. This volatile substance which is a probable carcinogen is used in the production of perfumes and dyes among other processes.
What's worse is that researchers found that if heat levels are higher than normal, which is par for the course here in India, then the concentration of these volatile chemicals also increased.
While carmakers are expected to use better materials that emit less of these carcinogenic chemicals, what can you avoid these cancer-causing chemicals when you buy a new car?
Well, the researchers behind the study have a simple solution to avoid these volatile substances - Open your windows. The researchers claim that will help rapidly reduce the concentration of these volatile chemicals inside the cabin of your new cars.
Another suggestion considering that heat increases the concentration of these harmful chemicals is to find a 'cooler' parking spot, perhaps under a tree providing quite a bit of shade.
If possible, especially if your parking spot is fully secure, another option would be to keep your doors open for a bit in your parking spot.
Carmakers already are trying various ways to keep the cabins of new vehicles clear of chemicals, especially after the covid pandemic. New cars like the recently launched Nexon EV Max Dark come with a car purifier built into the cabin.
Thoughts About The New Car Smell
The new car smell is something all of us associate with when we get into our new rides at the start of our lives with them.
Hopefully, the results of this study and others like it will ensure that carmakers use safer materials when they make these rides that people spend many hours of the day commuting to and fro from work or when trying to escape the madness of the rat race in the concrete jungle.
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