var json_comments = new Array("
\"user-pic\"
erica.blog
May 19, 2007 3:55 PM
Moderate | Flag for review

Unfortunately, the alternative is to buckle the kid on a regular car seat, which is less safe (and the regular car seat probably has as much crap in it as the baby car seat does)...

I found it interesting that there was not necessarily any consistency in which companies had safer seats -- a seat from one maker might be 0.2, while another seat from the same maker would be 5.0.

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
Sockatume
May 19, 2007 5:05 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

I'm a bit unsure of their methodology. They've taken the concentrations of these materials in the solids of the car, and then applied a weighting according to how well it'll release these materials into the atmosphere based on their own judgement. Then they use some other weighing factors to figure out the whole \"safeness\" of the vehicle. They've even used elements as proxies for specific compounds which is eyebrow-raisingly dubious. Their results are fine for comparing one vehicle to another, but their red-to-green scale makes it seem like things with low ratings are \"dangerous\" and things with high ratings are \"safe\". I'm not sure they can really say that. The reds might still be safe, and the greens might still be dangerous.

I'd rather they'd cut out the middle-man and analysed the atmosphere in the car directly for the compounds of interest. That way we'd have some absolute figures which could be compared to things like OSHA recommendations for exposure. Of course it's understandable that they didn't: it would almost certainly require novel spectroscopic techniques. Maybe they could rope a local university into a research project on the subject, somewhere that's bought a DART-MS and wants to justify the expense.

I've got to applaud their efforts, though, this was quite an undertaking and like I say it's still a sound relative guide.

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
timmus
May 19, 2007 6:04 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

Britax, whose Marthon Platinum seat received one of the worst scores, \"did not return calls.\"

Britax? This pisses me off as our 3-year old has been using a Britax seat since he was a baby. You'd better return your calls, Britax, or I won't be buying from you again.

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
FLConsumer
May 19, 2007 6:22 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

Considering car interiors in Florida can get hotter than 160F, I'd definitely be worried about things like this.

Actually, this is just a symptom of a mucher larger problem. There's measurable amounts of Teflon in just about every American's blood (even kids), so who knows what other chemicals end up making it into our bodies...and how these chemicals interact with each other once they've entered the body. This is definitely one area where we need more scientific research.

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
Sudonum
May 19, 2007 8:36 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@FLConsumer:
Teflon in our blood??? Kool, does it keep the plaque from sticking to my arteries????

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
ColoradoShark
May 19, 2007 8:44 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@: Go check out Freakonomics. The authors have questioned whether car seats/booster seats are actually better than just belting into a regular seatbelt. The reaction they get seems to be they are blaspheming and no one want to do the testing. (The testing is with crash dummies, not people.)

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
synergy
May 19, 2007 9:08 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@ColoradoShark: I was wondering the same just a few days ago when we were choosing whose car to take out to lunch and one knocked herself out of the race because she has two baby carseats in the back, pretty much making the backseat useless for anyone else. When I was growing up I don't think I really ever heard about ejected infants and I don't recall most people even using car seats.

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!)
May 20, 2007 3:47 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

Of COURSE they are. Anything made of plastic or involving standard upholstery/padding is chock full o' nasty VOC-off-gassing chemicals that'll kill ya. As is anything that doesn't go up in flames immediately.

But at a certain point you've got to say, \"Hm, would I rather have baby exposed to asbestos or exposed to a seat that'll go up in flames in seconds?\"

@ColoradoShark: And even if car seats ARE safer, the fact that they're installed wrong NINETY PERCENT OF THE TIME, according to the manufacturers' own statistics, suggests they're an EXTREMELY poor safety product. Seat belts that were so difficult to use they were put on wrong 90% of the time would be a national scandal, particularly if children were involved.

Some suggest, however, that car seat mfrs. put out those 90% stats and put on all those \"how to install the seat\" clinics at firehouses so that when they get sued for an infant death when the seat fails, they can put up the defense that \"90% are installed wrong, so it must have been user error.\" (And since that typically IS the defense, you gotta wonder.)

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
FLConsumer
May 20, 2007 7:43 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

@Sudonum:

Here's the science:
http://www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20050113/is-teflon-chemic...

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
Sudonum
May 20, 2007 7:06 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@FLConsumer:
I wasn't doubting you, just trying to find the silver lining.

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
arirang
May 21, 2007 5:55 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

So what is the moral of the story? That kids are safer lugged around on public transportation or in cabs on our laps?

Good grief can't anything be made so that's it's safe holistically?

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
erica.blog
May 22, 2007 3:03 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@ColoradoShark et al: trust me as the mother of a toddler -- the kid is safer in a car seat. Not necessarily because a car seat is inherently better than a plain seatbelt, but because she can't unbuckle herself.

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
Trackback
May 25, 2007 10:03 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

Homeland Stupidity looks at the heckuva job FEMA’s still doing; T-Sides gets loud and heavy, then adds a couple more versions of “These Days” to the pile; Ickmusic has a killer boot two-fer: Live Petty & The Heartbreakers (1980) and live Miles Davis (1971); Consumerist looks...

Reply
");