Is Your Child's Car Seat Chemically Safe?
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 05.21.07
I think that's a pretty relevant question to ask, especially when a new report indicates that the "TurboBooster SafeSeat" put out by Graco is one of the worst when it comes to chemical ingredients such as chlorine, bromine and lead. They've all been linked to things like cancer, liver, thyroid and developmental problems in children and lab animals and the study shows they could be leaching from your childs car seat and putting their health at risk. Not that every car seat has this issue either, in fact some of the 62 models tested had no chemical problems at all. But 30 percent had high levels of the chemicals. So which ones performed the best during this test? Well, Graco's SnugRide Emerson and EvenFlo Discovery Churchill were found to have none of the chemicals at all. And while these are clearly better choices, it's troubling to see that even some car seats have these chemical concerns at all. The reason given by manufacturers? Utilizing different ingredients that are safer costs more, and to keep prices down they go for the cheaper chemicals, albeit ones with serious potential consequences for the kids who use them. I'd like to propose a solution for Graco and the others whose car seats flunked the chemical test. How about removing the dangerous chemicals and replacing them with ones that won't cause problems while passing the relatively small price increase along to the consumer and letting them know why the increase is taking place. I highly doubt there is a parent out there who would mind paying the small increase to ensure the car seat you sell them is as safe as it needs to be on a day-to-day basis because our kids are that important. It's that simple.
All made in China no doubt. The problem is, they will no longer be able to put some of the hazardous ingredients in food for export to the US. What do you want to do, take their jobs away? (Snark alert)
What these big car seat and stroller companies need to start doing is recycling these items. It is illegal to resell car seats in Ontario, therefore thousands if not hundreds of thousands of them end up in landfills each year.
It's hard to know who to believe in these situations. I saw the report on HealthyCar.org and did some research on it after that. Sanjay Gupta appeared on CNN's American Morning on Friday and he basically said that the amounts reported by HealthyCar.org were not at toxic levels and should not be a problem (find transcript here: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0405/18/ltm.02.html ) but I also know better than to trust what mainstream media and the medical community reports, as they think the steroid and pesticide ridden food we eat is perfectly fine! I am however concerned by the reaction of parents - hopefully everyone still realizes the importance of using a car seat for their child and maybe just chooses to 'upgrade' to one found on HealthyCar.org to be chemical free.