Car seats have to meet high government standards for functional safety, but are they healthy? The non-profit Ecology Center at HealthyStufff.org tested over 150-2011 model car seats and found that 60% contained bromine, lead, chlorine and other chemicals with "known toxicity, persistence, and tendency to build up in people and the environment." Believe it or not, this is an improvement over the 64% found three years ago.
Here is their list of the ten that fared best and worst in their testing. You can learn more about the study on their website, HealthyStuff.org.
(Images: HealthyStuff.org)
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Comments (11)
Please check out the carseatlady's blog before getting a new seat- she makes good points about the validity of Healthy Stuff's testing & discrepancies among the results:
http://thecarseatlady.wordpress.com/2011/08/04/chemicals/
When I read these things, the first thing that comes to mind is the fact that the world still has an ever-expanding population. I don't think kids are dying of cancer because their infant car seat wasn't the "healthiest". I mean, even our parents who were just laid down on the bench style seats in an old seatbelt-less car are still around. So I'm sure we'll all be just fine. And if that's not enough, then by all means, walk everywhere with your kids... and fill their lungs with all the harmful chemicals that are in our air....
Even though we strive to make our lifestyle as green, organic, and nontoxic as possible, I'm much more concerned about the risks of car crashes than toxins in the car seat. I would certainly not buy a car seat based on this list first and crash tests second... However we are researching seats for our first baby and I'm happy to see that the model I picked out based on safety ratings (and the color I liked) also had low levels of chemicals.
I wouldn't use this list to choose a carseat (safety would be my #1 priority), but I still think this is extremely problematic.
I like the scene in the Babies movie where the Mongolian family hops on their motorcycle to drive themselves home from the hospital after the birth of the baby.
This makes me wonder how many toxins are in our cars? Is there a solution to this problem? Can a "green" car seat be purchased at an affordable price? (my spell check is off sorry)
What does this even mean? It's not as if the kids are eating the car seats. I am in complete agreement with Erica on this: let's stop being so damn paranoid. Don't want your kids to be in contact with any chemicals? Stop breathing the air.
Yes, safety is the #1 priority in choosing a car seat but this list is part of a bigger, VERY troubling issue. The bigger issue is that there is close to no regulation of the many toxic chemicals are used in every day items - many of which are for infants and children. For example, though many plastics are now BPA free, BPA has been replaced by a substance that has no fact sheet and we know nothing about. Also, plastic contains many other ingredients that are toxic and highly estrogenic. We cant protect our kids from every thing but the more pressure we as parents and consumers put on the government and companies the more likely safer products will be made.
I don't understand why the toxicity levels vary between different colors of the same seat. What's that about?
I don't understand why the toxicity levels vary between different colors of the same seat. What's that about?
Seems like we're damned if we do, damned if we don't. That said, I have learned so much about toxins since my daughter was born. I started out researching flame resistant chemicals used in infant pajamas and discovered a whole world of scary stuff - in the foam in couches and cars, in electronics, in the materials used to build the homes we live in. I am not a paranoid person, and I don't believe in conspiracy theories. These toxins are scary because they are absorbed through the skin via off-gassing and they stay in our systems for a LONG time, AND they are endochrine-disrupters, which means they mess with our hormones. When it comes to kids/infants, they absorb more toxins because their skin isn't able to metabolize the chemicals at the same rate as adults, so the toxicity levels build up....and can lead to things like infertility. A single carseat isn't the problem - but the aggregate effect of years of exposure is a problem.