Do you get headaches when you drive? Mouth dry? Get a bit breathless when you walk upstairs from the car park? Heart rate like 50 miles of bad road? Stressed- Well, more than usual, after playing hide and seek in the traffic? How about all of the above? This is the sort of thing your car insurance doesn’t mention, but your health insurance will be paying close attention.
The car environment
The car environment is basically a drivable couch. The difference is that couches usually don’t produce carbon monoxide. You can’t smell it or see it, but anything that burns carbon produces it, and car engines are capable of producing a lot of it.
The seating, particularly plastic, also produces fumes. These are really caused by chemical interactions with heat, light, and having a lot of organic chemistry in the form of humans in the car, does the rest.
Symptoms and fixes
Important note- The symptoms described here can have other causes, but whatever their source, they shouldn’t be ignored. In particular, don’t ignore breathlessness or a higher heart rate.
Headaches- These are a common symptom of both oxygen deprivation and carbon monoxide poisoning. This, believe it or not, is the mild version of this type of poisoning.
The fixes –
- Check the car for any possibility of fumes coming into the cabin from the engine. Seal the cabin.
- Air conditioner on the blink? You may be simply suffocating, particularly in cold weather.(Oxygen deprivation over a period can cause headaches.) Check the filters, and replace if necessary.
- Plastic seats? You might be getting fumes. Replace with leather.
- Just open a window, unless you’re in heavy traffic, which will make the headache worse.
Dry mouth: This is a symptom of dehydration, and that can get very nasty indeed.
The fixes-
- Check your air con. The heater may be doing the damage, making the air too dry. That plays havoc with your breathing, (your lungs need moisture) and can also cause headaches.
- Check the engine for fumes, as above.
- Keep a bottle of water handy, whatever the cause.
Heart rate and breathlessness: These are usually a result of a combination of factors. If you have any known related medical condition, and driving makes it worse, you’ve got a problem you must fix.
The fixes-
- If you’re fine when you’ve been out of the car for a while, you’ve found the problem. Get the car thoroughly serviced and replace anything that affects the car atmosphere ASAP.
- If your doctor says there’s nothing wrong with you, there’s definitely something wrong with the car. Find and fix.
Stress: Driver stress adds adrenalin to an unholy cocktail of chemicals in car environments. That, you do not need.
The fixes-
- Figure out a less traumatic driving route, or even change jobs and place of residence.
- Car pool. It saves money and saves your nervous system from jumping out of your skin. Let someone else do the worrying for a while.
Consider the values- Your car insurance quotes put a value on your car, but what value do you put on your health?
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