Toxic Air In Your Car/ Need To Be Aware

http://www.malaya.com.ph/12112009/edchua.html


Your automobile could pose some risks to your life, even before it moves.’


ENTERING you car, without first opening the windows for a few minutes to allow air from the outside to circulate and aerate the inside, especially when parked under the sun, may be hazardous to your health.


Indeed, your automobile could pose some risks to your life, even before it moves. Like we exercise great caution when driving to prevent injuries to ourselves and to others leading to loss of limb or life, so should we protect ourselves and passengers in our car, even prior to boarding it.


We are referring to the toxic air in the car from chemical vapor coming from heated dashboard and other interior parts of the car made of plastic and synthetic sofa materials, and from air fresheners and aerosols. Turning the air-conditioning on, without prior aeration (to replace stale and impure air with fresh one) through all four opened windows, will only re-circulate the polluted air within the car.


The toxin Benzene, a carcinogen (cancer-causing) is said to be emitted when plastic is subjected to a high temperature, like in a closed parked car under the sun. Besides being harmful to persons with asthma and allergies, air fresheners and aerosols used in cars and at home, are likewise suspects for toxicity, which could cause harm to bones, blood cells, liver, kidneys, etc.


Experts believe that the acceptable indoor level of Benzene is 50 mg per square foot. The level goes up to 400-800 mg in a parked car with doors and windows shut. This toxic "vapor" goes up 40 times higher that the "acceptable" level, to 2000-4000 mg, in cars parked with windows closed under the sun at an ambient temperature of 60 degrees F. During summer, the temperature could go up higher than a hundred.


It is, therefore, important to open the car windows to allow stale air to flow out as fresher air from the outside comes in for a couple of minutes, before we enter the car, turn on the air conditioner, close the door and windows, and drive on.


Common sense tells us that the cleaner the air we breathe in, the healthier it is for us. Any strategy to prevent or reduce air pollution around us is well worth all our effort as earthlings. After all, the air we inhale provides us an essential and vital element we cannot live without, one that keeps us alive: oxygen.