Consumer Reports (CR), the Green Science Policy Institute, and the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) today delivered more than 32,000 petition signatures to the headquarters of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), calling on the agency to update its outdated flammability standard for car interiors and child car seats. Currently, to meet this standard, manufacturers add flame retardant chemicals to seat foam and other materials. These include chemicals known or suspected to cause cancer, and they are also linked to reproductive and neurological harms.
A May 2024 peer-reviewed study by Duke University, Green Science Policy Institute, and University of Toronto researchers found that the air inside all 101 personal vehicles tested was polluted with harmful flame retardants. CR is among the more than 70 organizations that today sent a letter to NHTSA calling on the agency to launch an effort to update its 1971 flammability standard for vehicle interiors, FMVSS No. 302, and consider replacing the current flammability testing with a different type of test that does not lead to the use of harmful chemicals in vehicles.
William Wallace, associate director of safety policy for Consumer Reports, said, “There are alternatives that can protect consumers from fires inside their cars, while sparing them the health harms of toxic chemical exposure. NHTSA should immediately launch an effort to update its outdated flammability standard for the interiors of our cars and child car seats.”
“Everyone who rides in a car is needlessly exposed to cancer-causing, neurotoxic flame retardant chemicals because of an outdated flammability standard,” according to Arlene Blum, executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute. “It is time for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to modernize their 1971 standard so we can have cars that are both fire-safe and healthy.”
The Green Science Policy Institute has highlighted that there is a lack of data demonstrating a fire safety benefit from meeting the FMVSS 302 standard. In a recent statement, IAFF also said that “… these harmful chemicals do little to prevent fires for most uses and instead make the blazes smokier and more toxic for victims, and especially for first responders.”
In addition to the thousands of consumers who signed the petition, leading toxicologist Linda Birnbaum and renowned Boston firefighter Jay Fleming publicly called on NHTSA to reevaluate the standard. “With improved flammability standards and vehicle design, we can better protect people from both fire and chemical hazards,” they concluded in a joint commentary.