April 23, 2008 | Health, Shopping
As if endocrine-disrupting BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups, and pesticides in fruits and veggies, hormones and antibiotics in milk and meats, and drugs in our water weren’t enough for us to worry about as we try to protect our kids, a study done by the Michigan-based Ecology Center found high levels of toxins in car seats, from infant rear-facing car seats all the way up to belt-positioning boosters.
Bromine, a flame retardant, has been linked to cancer, hormone disruption, neurotoxicity, and fertility problems, breaks down in sunlight, increasing exposure. And who has a car that never sees sunlight?
Chlorine indicates the presence of PVC, which releases the carcinogenic dioxin (precisely what Ukrainian president Yushenko was poisoned with) in production and destruction. It also contains plasticizers that can lead to hormone disruption.
Lead. Yep, it’s in car seats too. And no, there are no safe levels.
Heavy metals, including antimony and arsenic - both carcinogens.
You can check out your car seat and see how it’s rated at the Ecology Center’s project website, Healthy Cars.
Also, remember that a car seat only protects your baby or child when it’s installed properly and your child is properly harnessed. Your local police station will happily check the installation for you if you call and schedule an appointment. Approximately 80% of families have their car seats installed incorrectly. So please, for your child’s safety, get it checked.
RSS feed for comments on this post.
The URI to TrackBack this entry is:
http://broomhuggers.com/2008/04/23/one-more-thing-to-fear/trackback/
cjoy says:
I have also read that there was a study done in New Zealand showing that the flame retardant material in mattresses is related SIDS.
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:20 amJeana says:
Cjoy,
You are correct! I’ll put that on my list of things to research this week and see if I can find you some more information.
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:36 amKristi says:
This doesn’t surprise me in the least. The inside of a car is already one of the most toxic places I visit on a regular basis — I’m sure the chemical soup in there would fill a page with the names of bad things, but what can you do? Short of moving to the city, which has its own air-quality issues, (and would require my husband to spend more time in his car), there’s no avoiding the car, or the car seat.
April 23rd, 2008 at 3:09 pmJeana says:
Kristi,
As you pointed out, some things are really hard to avoid. I did check my car seat rating and it was in the mid ranges. Now, I can’t go out and spend the money to buy two new car seats, I also can’t go out and replace my car with one that has a lower toxicity rating. Now knowing what I know about cars and car seats I can protect my family in other ways. I can avoid harsh chemicals by using natural cleaning products, by being selective in our body care products, watching what we eat and purifying the water we drink and shower in. It’s good to know about the things that aren’t always avoidable so we are more encouraged to do something about the things that are!
April 24th, 2008 at 6:13 am