The flame retardant thing is baffling me, anyway. Flame retardant fabrics/plastics in a vehicle either toting around 10-20 gallons of monumentally flammable gasoline, or hundreds of kWh of lithium batteries. Sure, chief, the fabrics will keep it from catching on fire…
Clothing that can erupt into flames is coming under increasing scrutiny of consumer and fire safety organizations. They say Federal regulations governing the safety of fabrics used in clothing are too weak to protect the people who are most vulnerable: the elderly.
Those who most often suffer serious injury or death from clothing fires, safety experts say, are retired people who spend many hours of the day in such loose-fitting garments as bathrobes or housecoats. With the exception of children’s sleepwear, for which special regulations were decreed in the 1970’s, Federal standards allow clothing manufacturers to use all but the most extremely flammable fabrics.
Plastic fibers can melt to your skin, which isn’t great considering you’re in contact with the seats and carpets of the car. In an emergency, you’re not prepared to deal with additional complications like that.
The article I linked here is pretty good, so I recommend reading it if you aren’t familiar with this issue from back then. It will really help give you the other side of the issue to see why these chemicals are there to begin with.
All I’m hearing is that you don’t appear to fully understand the conditions under which the materials are mandated to withstand extreme heat and combustion
The flame retardant thing is baffling me, anyway. Flame retardant fabrics/plastics in a vehicle either toting around 10-20 gallons of monumentally flammable gasoline, or hundreds of kWh of lithium batteries. Sure, chief, the fabrics will keep it from catching on fire…
I think many may now be too young to remember, but in the 70s and 80s, this was a big issue.
NY Times, 11 June, 1983 - DEMAND INCREASES FOR FIRE-SAFE CLOTHING
Plastic fibers can melt to your skin, which isn’t great considering you’re in contact with the seats and carpets of the car. In an emergency, you’re not prepared to deal with additional complications like that.
The article I linked here is pretty good, so I recommend reading it if you aren’t familiar with this issue from back then. It will really help give you the other side of the issue to see why these chemicals are there to begin with.
“That”: your pants become bonded to your skin and the car seat
😬
It was never about outright preventing fires.
It was always about simply giving passengers the best chance to escape before the fire overwhelms all of the flame-retardant measures.
That said, the carcinogenic and neurological effects do kinda demand that a different solution be found right fucking quick.
Like cotton/linen fabrics? Cotton is pretty naturally flame resistant. Probably can’t help you on all the plastics in a modern car interior, though.
All I’m hearing is that you don’t appear to fully understand the conditions under which the materials are mandated to withstand extreme heat and combustion