Danger, Will Robinson! Latest New-Car-Smell-Is-Bad Study Says It’s Worse in the Summer
Remember when a “new car smell” was a good thing?
Yes, that’s been a while. That smell, we’ve learned, is a combination of about 50 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from upholstery, paint, cleaning products, glue, carpet, and a bunch of other sources. In a pioneering study by the Scientific Instrument Services that was completed in 1999, we were told that, “Potential health risks exist due to the toxic nature of many of these components.”
That particular study used the “Scientific Instrument Services model TD-3 Short Path Thermal Desorption System accessory connected to the injection port of an HP 5890 Series II GC interfaced to an HP 5971 Mass Selective Detector.” After the samples were taken from a Lincoln Continental, they were “purged with helium at 50 ml/min for 8 minutes and then spiked with 100 ng of d-14 cymene internal standard by injecting 1 ul of a 100 ng/l of a d-14 cymene stock solution in methanol by syringe injection into the Tenax matrix.”
In other words, don’t try this at home.
Anyway, that study was one of the earlier ones that insisted that the new car smell was bad for us. Since then, we’ve been barraged by multiple studies on the subject, some of which have suggested that we should drive our new cars with the windows down.
And now comes a new one that says not only is the new car smell bad for you, it’s especially troublesome during the summer months, of which we are, of course, right in the middle. The study appears in the July issue of Oxford Academic’s PNAS Nexus, and says that, “Material surface temperature crucially influences the in-cabin VOC emission characteristics, rather than air temperature. This particularly affects new vehicles in summer hot days, explaining the strong new car smell.”
This study was done in China by the Beijing Institute of Technology and Peking University. A great deal of the new car smell research in the past 25 years or so comes from China. Why? Because the Chinese people hate new car smell, and have long sought to eliminate it. An article published in 2018 in the journal Quartz reported that in the U.S., “You can buy fragrances that emulate the new-car smell. In China, such an idea would seem utterly absurd because consumers loathe that lingering scent.” The story said that Ford realized the issue early on and hired people with “golden noses” in China, “whose job is to sniff car parts, sending them back when their scent is deemed offensive.”
According to a Newsweek story on this new Chinese summer-is-bad study, “These volatile chemicals include toluene, used in paints, glues and nail polish removers; styrene, used in rubber, insulation and carpet backing; and formaldehyde, which is used in carpets, leather and vehicle paint. Previous research has shown that inhaling these chemicals can cause a range of health problems, from nausea and headaches to memory loss, hormonal disruption and cancer.”
While it’s well established that certain VOC odors technically can be bad for you, these studies are typically short on hard evidence of human damage quantifiably caused by new car smell. In a 2007 study undertaken by Germany’s Technical University of Munich, toxicologists researched new car smell and, according to an account of the study published that year in Live Science, “New car smell does not appear to be toxic, the scientists found. Air from the new car did cause a slight aggravation of the immune response that could affect people with allergies.”
Bottom line: Enjoy your new car smell while you can (unless you’re Chinese). It will be long, long gone before you make the last payment.
I used to love the smell of gasoline fumes when I was a kid. I would still put them as more pleasant than unpleasant. Not ‘I just poured gasoline down my pant leg’ fumes, but more like ‘gas can in the general proximity’ gas fumes
I read a study one time that talked about cultural influences on ‘bad’ smells. Some cultures put biological smells higher than chemical smells, and vice versa. To each their own I guess.
For gods sake. Breathing can kill you.
Look we breathe many things worse for you than a new car. Been to NYC in summer in Time Square?
I remember the smell of gas as a kid. It smelled better then. Might have been the lead.
The best smell is new tires at a tire store,
Chinatown, Little Italy and the Bowery on trash day in the summer is MUCH worse than Times Square.
Aviation Gas smells really good too even as Exhaust.
It smells like Victory. .
Back in my (long ago) flight instructing days, we used to joke about the great smell of “Eau de’Jet A”.
But back to the story, just another in a long list of reasons not to buy a new car…
For years and years I’ve read warning labels saying something like – ‘has been found to cause cancer in lab rats in California ‘ – And I’ve remarked the same thing a thousand times – ‘ Yea, but those California rats are a bunch of p*****s. A New York rat would get a nice buzz and come back for more ‘- However, as reckless as I’ve been in the past, at a certain point you realize you really shouldn’t be huffing in this stuff. That sudden really bad headache. Plus there’s always someone who can still get gallons of toxic death that has been banned for years and for good reason. If you’re older you’re shaving a few points off at the end. But a young kid who’s brain is developing? Maybe it’s being overly cautious, then again maybe not.
I lol’d
I read somewhere once that half of the known substances on earth (natural or otherwise) will fail the rat test
The NY rats would look for a piece of pizza to drag home.
I am getting tired of overly educated elitists with nothing better to do telling we the people what is good and what is bad. Tell me, eggheads, how many people’s health has suffered from the new car smell. I thought so. The only new car smell that anybody legitimately complained about was the fishy smell in the Ford Transit Connect which was built in Turkey.
Trampoline ‘wreck’ with my cousin and off to the hospital I had to go for a few stitches in my head.. they wrapped my head up like a mummy and put me in the back seat of my Uncle’s new Buick Park Avenue. My first experience with the new car smell. What an odd memory. I was thinking, oh my goodness don’t bleed on this beautiful interior! I was about 10 years old.
It’s not my favorite smell, but it eventually goes away. I have a car over a year old some people claim to smell the new car smell in, but I don’t anymore.
I don’t care much one way or another about the new car smell, but that new leather smell, well that is what makes the interior of a car smell nice.
The coolest time I experienced the new car smell was in 1989 when I first looked at the 1966 Fastback Mustang GT I was about to buy. The previous owner had just put in new carpet and upholstery. Sitting in a classic Mustang that not only looked new but smelled it too has left a lasting impression.
I read somewhere that people who find the smell of gasoline pleasant (me being one) are much more likely to develop chemical addictions in life.
It’s a genetic marker or something. Luckily I am only addicted to Mexican food
So the water is full of microplastics, the air is full of god knows what, our food supply is full of listeria and e coli, and now the smell of a new car is toxic? Give me a break. I’ll take my chances.
Bought a new car in 2007, enjoyed the new car smell, but after a while was feeling a bit unwell, nothing serious, but like something in my system was just a biit off. Time went by, symptoms disappeared, and in 2018 purchased another new car, and had a re-occurrence of the unwell feeling. It’s gone now, thanks in part to the Arizona heat, but I had thought for the longest time that the new car smell had something to do with my unwell feeling. Refreshing that it it is now out in the open, not just in my imagination!
I’m not lacing up gloves to get in the “science vs. common sense-what I like anyway” discussion. Was just reminded of a female comedien’s joke that her social life was a zero until she discovered a perfume that has men chasing her. It’s called “New Car Smell.”
Bah.
I purchased a new sports car in 2010. I’ve travelled only 14K miles since new & it still has the new car smell. I get comments from anyone who steps in it fro a ride. I actually like it & if i could preserve it further i would.