A friend of mine once said, “A car is just a big chemical bomb waiting to go off”.  From a Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome (MCS) perspective I had to laugh when she said this.  Motorized vehicles are the biggest cause of environmental damage in the world today; there is no reason to doubt that they can be a complete pain the butt when it comes to our personal environments as well.   

 

I just can’t find an organically grown internal combustion engine any where at my local natural market or on the web.  There is nothing naturally occurring about a car.  Just the sheer number of toxic fluids that the average automobile carries around with it on a consistent basis should give someone with MCS a moments pause.  Cars, trucks, busses, motorcycles and airplanes are an unavoidable part of our modern world.  Even if we were to give up and live in an Amish village we would still encounter motorized vehicles when they pass us in our horse drawn buggy. 

 

So what’s a MCS’r to do?  We can just through our hands up and ride a bicycle around as much as possible, an option I took for about a year.  Of course I was still breathing in the fumes of the cars around me.  This is an option I think a fair amount of us try but for a great many it’s just not a practical option in the long run.  We have to buy groceries for the family, we need to haul around kids and significant others.  We just need more hauling capacity.  I’ve spent several years riding a motorcycle as my only form of transportation.  With this I still had to deal with all sorts of gear and maintenance which presented their own set of MCS challenges.  Of course there are also many of the same drawbacks as the bicycle such as carrying capacity and dealing with bad weather.  There is also the bus.  An option I’ve used a lot over the years.  With all the uncontrollable variables inherent in public transportation the bus is not exactly an MCS free zone.  Not to mention that trying to bring home a new mattress on the bus is largely frowned upon by the bus driver. In the end, most of us who live inNorth Americawill wind up needing to own privet transportation of some sort.  Like it or not cars, for a lot of us, are simply realities of our modern world

 

A good number of years back, when I was just starting to discover MCS, I needed a car.  I had just received an unexpected windfall and I went out to look for reliable, inexpensive transportation.  What I wound up with was a used, four door, hatchback Geo Metro five speed.  I drove off the lot excited that I had again joined the ranks of the mobile.  It was not stylish but it was reliable and dirt cheap to operate.  I drove that car for about sixty thousand miles before one morning I forgot to put the oil cap back on after topping it off.  I drove it for the day until white smoke began to come out of the engine.  When I got back home and opened the hood I found oil all over the engine.  A lot of that oil had burned off and turned in to oil smoke.  That smoke got into the air intake for the interior of the car and all over me.  Thankfully I could just go inside, take a shower and change my cloths.  The interior of the car on the other hand, from a MCS perspective, was not going to recover.

 

I cleaned out the engine compartment as best I could.  I shampooed and vacuumed the entire inside of the car.  I even took a friends suggestion and put an ozone generator in it over night.  All with no luck.  The car caused me to feel awful each time I drove it.  I tried on and off to clean it out for the next three months but in the end I just sold it and drove my motorcycle for the next several years. 

 

Since that time I have learned a fair amount about how to keep my vehicles from being MCS triggers.  I have a friend who works as a car detailer at a localToyotadealership, and I spent a summer selling cars for Honda.  The number one thing I learned is that I will never again buy a used are form a dealership.  Don’t get me wrong, often the most reliable vehicles will come out of the used car programs of big car companies.  My concern is with MCS and how dealerships prep the used cars for sale, they look great but I wouldn’t want to sit in one. 

 

As with al lot of items the first question to ask is; which kind of car will cause me the least or no MCS reaction.  During my time as a car salesman I did a fair amount of research in the form of trying competitor’s cars.  New Hondas and Toyotas did not once cause me a MCS reaction.  One caveat to this is that cars with leather seats that came form the factory were great; if the leather was after market I could not tolerate it.  Of course the more expensive versions of them, the Acura’s and the Lexus were also ok.  Mazdas and Nissans I had a hard time with.  I was a little surprised that Fords seemed ok while Chevrolets were hit and miss.  A few years back Volkswagens were good but I have not sat in one for the last several years. 

 

As usual my experience will perhaps be a useful guide but it is only your experience that will really matter.  Where to start?  Do you spend time in a friend’s car?  Does it bother you?  How was the last rental car you tried?  Perhaps spend a day going around to different dealerships and spend time sitting in different vehicles.  If you do this I recommend printing out some fake business cards on your home computer.  Use a fake phone number and email address, if you give the sales person real ones they will each be calling you for days and perhaps months.  A great way to get exposure to many different vehicles at one time, with a lot less sales pressure, is to go to your local car show.  Each dealership from around the area will be represented.  You can sit in many cars in a short period of time with out the salesmen asking you buy.  Get brochures from the different cars, if you can, then use them for muscle testing when you get back home.  Perhaps, if you are comfortable, you can put one hand on the car in question and do muscle testing at the show.  These strategies can assist you finding the correct make and model for your transportation needs and individual sensitivities.*

 

Once you know what kind of car you want, and a new car is not what you are looking for, then I would suggest taking a look on Craig’s List or your local classifieds.   A lot of the cars sold by individuals will be vacuumed out and washed but will not have a large amount of toxic chemicals used in making them look pretty.  Also pre-owned cars often will be well used and ‘aired out’.  Many MCS triggers will have simply dissipated over the years before you come into contact with them.  Also there are the advantages of getting a little better price form most privet sellers and the pressure to buy will be much lower. 

 

Perhaps you already have a car and something unexpected happens.  The automobile that the day before caused you no problems is now suddenly emitting a MCS trigger.   I have had this happen a few times in the last couple of years.  Thankfully I have been able to correct it each time.  First of all take care of any mechanical issues that may be causing the problem.  Then remember, situations where the unexpected happens is a time where the detail shop at your local dealership can work to your advantage.  It is important that when you take the car in, ask to be able to talk to the person who will actually be working on your car.  If the person processing you request won’t allow this then simply drive it down the block to the next guy.

 

I have found that starting conversations with people by discussing MCS and various triggers only illicit blank stairs and strange looks.  Not at all helpful.  A tack that I find works well is to discuss what I need taken care of and then simply saying that I have allergies to different kinds of chemicals. “Please get rid of the cause of the problem but please don’t leave anything behind.”  Most people don’t get MCS when I talk about it, what people do understand are allergies.  When I have had discussions with the person doing the cleaning work on my car and I frame it in this way I have had some great results.  Cleaning chemicals are designed to clean then to go away themselves.  If you get your vehicle back and it still causes you a problem then try driving it for the next couple of days.  Each time I have had any residual MCS triggers dissipate quite quickly. **

 

*If you do decide to purchase a new car from a dealership make sure you have test drove the exact car you are thinking about buying.  If you find it has no, or at least tolerable, MCS triggers then talk to the salesmen before they prep it for delivery.  Before a car is handed over to the buyer it will be sent down to their detailing department.  Make sure they do nothing but a vacuuming to the inside of the car.  Some dealerships will use unpleasant chemicals to make the inside of the car shinier and give it that ‘new car smell’.  Make sure the salesman does not allow the dealership to do this.

 

**An added note:  if a MCS trigger comes into your car from the outside it will often leave a residue in the passenger compartments air intake system.  This can be cleaned out by the detailer by putting compressed air and fast dissipating aerosol solvent in the system.  Of course this must be done from the inside of the car so it blows outward, thus cleaning your heating/cooling system.