Wednesday, May 16, 2007

More on toxicity in car seats

Many readers are emailing about the toxic content of car seats (see posting below). Here's a partial Q&A from a phone conversation I just had with Jeff Gearhart, the director of the Ecology Center's Clean Car Campaign which produced the study.

A. How do the toxic chemicals get transferred to children?
Q. "Through dust and through evaporation. In the course of normal wear and tear, some chemicals are released onto naturally occurring dust that is inhaled, and some is ingested hand to mouth from a child's contact with the dust on the fabric. Some chemicals are also released through evaporation and are then directly inhaled."

A. Are you aware of any recall or refunds from these manufacturers?
Q. No. This will be interesting to watch, to see how they respond. We want manufacturers to be accountable and we're hoping this will be a wake-up call. However, there are no government standards and no agency to regulate this. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration comes closest. I recommend parents file a complaint with it. On our website, there is also contact information for manufacturers and retailers. One of our goals is to get retailers to pay more attention to this danger when they are choosing manufacturers. Right now, they only pay attention to crash worthiness. And I urge parents to pay attention to this when they are purchasing a new seat.

A. Are you a parent?
Q. Yes, of teenagers.
A. If you had young children who still used car seats....
Q. I would be getting a new car seat, yeah.

Posted by Barbara Meltz at 04:44 PM

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