The Toxic Automobile

From Don't inhale that new car smell by Terry Galanoy:

Ah, that new car smell, that eau de car-logne; it does an ego good while it does a wallet bad. And now it turns out, it can do bad things to your health, too.

All these years, while we were being offered safety first, last and front, side and rear ways, hardly anyone in the vehicle industry had given much thought to what actually was in that perfume de profit, the new car smell that car buyers sought and bought.

As everyone knew, pollution related to vehicles originated from the exhaust pipe, not the shifter knob. It was spewed out the back of the rear, not the back of the rear view mirror. Well, what everyone thought they knew was wrong.

It turns out -- take a deep breath -- that most of that new car smell is not some carefully-compounded, luxury, feel-good incense to the Mammon gods. But the new car smell comes from toxic gases.

Read the rest here.