Stepping into a new car offers us a smell that’s familiar to us as scent that is associated with something new and fresh like a new start to our driving experience. We love that smell so much that companies that make air fresheners have made products that offer new car scent as one of the choices as a smell that we want to enjoy in our vehicles. So far there’s nothing to indicate to us that new car smell is harmful to us when we step in a vehicle, but the ingredients that make up that smell can be harmful in large quantities.
The aroma of your new car isn’t caused by any special scents that car companies pump into the car, instead it’s caused by gasses that are expelled from compounds and chemicals that are not able to bond to other compounds and eventually are released over time. This phenomenon is called off-gassing. Inside your new car there could be as many as 200 different chemicals that make up that new car scent including carcinogens, formaldehyde, benzene and other volatile chemicals that could be harmful to us if inhaled over a long period of time.
The exposure to the newness of a car and the off-gassing isn’t only present in a car. This happens with any new product where items have been bonded. If you’ve ever had new carpet installed, or had nearly any part of your home redone this smell is present as well and off-gassing occurs. In order to ensure you don’t have to worry about the exposure and damage that can happen to you and your family from this off-gassing it’s important to take some safety precautions to minimize the potential damage that can be the result of being exposed to this newness in your home or your vehicle.
Off-gassing occurs more when the temperatures are higher, because of this if the mercury is rising you should open the windows in your home until the off-gassing has ended, which usually only takes a couple of weeks. This is also why it’s important to ventilate your home when you paint. What about your car? You want to enjoy that new car smell as long as you can before you let in the sweaty feet of teenage boys or the perfumes that young girls tend to add to the mix, don’t worry there’s a solution.
When you first buy your new vehicle you should run the air conditioning using the setting that brings in outside air rather than recirculating the air inside the vehicle. In order to safely enjoy the new car scent, purchase some of the air fresheners for vehicles that have the new car smell in them, this is a safe way to enjoy the smell and keep everyone safe from the harmful effects of exposure to off-gassing. While the research we do have tells us exposure isn’t necessarily going to cause long term effects on anyone, keeping yourself and your family from harmful exposure while enjoying the new car smell can be achieved.
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