Car Cabin Air Quality

Your Car Could Be Harming Your Health

It’s generally accepted that lifestyle and environment are the major factors behind Parkinson’s and, when talking about environment, the predominant issue is exposure to toxins.

I’ve made big efforts to reduce my exposure to toxins and, maybe, that’s a big contributors to my improving health. There are many actions that I’ve taken to reduce my exposure to toxins though one I’d never given consideration to is the air quality inside my car. I need to because studies are now showing that drivers and passengers can be exposed to more air pollution inside a car than pedestrians on the same street.

Some of the greenest cars have such poor air-filtration systems that their drivers and passengers can be exposed to poisonous levels of particles. The vehicles achieved the worst scores in a new “cabin air quality” rating system, despite all performing well in tests for the amount of pollution they emit from their exhausts.

By contrast some of the cars and vans with the best scores for internal air quality had high emissions of toxic nitrogen oxides (NOx). This means that they protect their drivers and passengers from bad air but expose other people to pollution

The conclusion that can be drawn is that manufacturers could be trying to improve fuel efficiency at the expense of air filtration.

Two of the worst models for internal air quality are hybrids that have electric motors and petrol engines and are designed to use as little fuel as possible. Effective filtration systems consume more energy by sucking air into the car through dense filters that trap pollutants. Hybrid manufacturers may be configuring the system to consume less energy

Some cheaper models could also be using less effective filters and have less sophisticated ventilation systems.

Cabin air quality is a question you need to be asking about when you are seeking to buy a car.

To get an independent assessment of fuel economy and emissions of all car models, go to this website – https://www.emissionsanalytics.com. Though, their published has yet to show cabin air quality, you can compare other data, eg fuel consumption, with that of the manufacturer’s.