‘It’s like these chemicals were having a heat-induced party, releasing more as the temperature climbed’
By 
The interior of a Bentley GT Coupe
(STUDY FINDS) — Picture this: You’re hopping into your car on a sweltering summer day, ready to crank up the AC and hit the road. But did you know that as you sink into your seat, you might be exposing yourself to a group of chemicals called flame retardants? A new study suggests that these compounds, often added to vehicle interiors to meet safety standards, could be silently seeping into the air you breathe inside your car.
Flame retardants are a bit like the unsung heroes of fire safety. They’re added to all sorts of products, from electronics to furniture, with the intention of slowing down or preventing the spread of flames in the event of a fire. In vehicles, they’re used to comply with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 302, which has been in place since the 1970s. The problem is that many of these chemicals don’t stay put in the materials they’re added to.
You see, a lot of flame retardants are what scientists call “semi-volatile.” This means that they can easily transition from a solid state (like the foam in your car seat) to a gas that ends up in the air. According to this new research, led by scientists at Duke University and the Green Science Policy Institute, the hotter it gets, the more these chemicals are released.
The researchers recruited 101 vehicle owners from across the United States to participate in the study, which is published in Environmental Science & Technology. Each person received a special silicone sampler, which they attached to their car’s rearview mirror for a week. Think of these samplers as chemical sponges – they’re really good at soaking up the compounds floating around in the air. Some participants also collected a small piece of foam from their car seat and sent it to the lab for analysis. All car models in the study were from 2015 or later.