14 May 2024 DailyMail
EVs may be safer for the environment but owners claim the vehicles are causing harm to their health.
There are growing reports of electric car drivers suffering motion sickness, dizziness and nausea from the vehicles’ braking and acceleration systems.
And a former Tesla owner has claimed that she experienced nosebleeds, hair loss and ‘debilitating’ body pains while using the vehicle she purchased in 2021.
While she was not entirely sure the Tesla was at fault, the Georgia resident and said her symptoms disappeared after selling the car.
Tesla owners have had to trade in some models because the air conditioning systems were prone to mold, which can cause asthma-like symptoms.
Tesla has been accused of being the ‘worst offender’ for causing motion sickness from its one-pedal throttle because they can be ‘very jerky and really abrupt,’ Ed Kim, president and chief analyst of AutoPacific told ABC News.
EV pedals mimic a brake pedal by allowing the vehicle to slow down or stop just by lifting your foot off the pedal, removing the need to switch between the brake and throttle like you would in a gas-powered car.
This means that there’s less wear and tear on the braking system, but also means the car will jolt forward or backward depending on how quickly you press down or lift your foot off the accelerator, which drivers wouldn’t experience in a gas vehicle.
‘Some passengers may experience uncomfortable pitching back and forth if the driver engages and disengages the throttle too quickly or too much, and that can absolutely lead to motion sickness for passengers,’ Kim told DailyMail.com.
‘You have to be so careful on how to apply the throttle… if not, it can lead to an abrupt seesaw motion for passengers.’
Yet, motion sickness is only one part of EV driver’s worries, according to a holistic health and wellness influencer @livingwellwithelle, who said she bought an EV to save money on gas prices but the payoff wasn’t worth it.
She reported that after buying a Tesla in 2021, she started experiencing fatigue after driving her vehicle and complained the symptoms got worse over time.
‘I would come home from grocery shopping and need to lay down in bed for 20 minutes before I could even unload the car,’ she said in an Instagram post.
Livingwellwithelle said she and her husband spent hours in the car and both experienced the same symptoms but it wasn’t until she took road trips in her mom’s gas-powered vehicle and experienced no symptoms that she realized something was wrong.
The symptoms escalated until she started having nosebleeds and nausea toward the end of long car rides and said she started losing her hair in the last few months of owning the car.
She added the disclaimer: ‘Am I sure the car caused these symptoms? I’m not 100 percent sure of anything.
‘Is it likely? Our symptoms are gone after selling it 5 months ago.’
There is no research supporting the claims that electric vehicles cause nosebleeds, hair loss or extreme fatigue, and Debra Holtz, a spokesperson for the Clean Transportation Program told DailyMail.com: ‘Our transportation experts at the Union of Concerned Scientists are unaware of any illnesses caused by electric vehicles.’
Livingwithelle claimed she experienced shoulder and neck pain, saying she thought the headrest was to blame because it forces the neck into a forward posture and curves the upper back.
Her post had more than 130 replies with one woman sharing: ‘My sister and brother in law had something similar happen to them. They sent the car in for repairs and it ended up being mold everywhere.
A mother commented: ‘Owned a model Y for 3 years and had major headaches, body aches, tired all the time, over all just not feeling myself. My children had the same symptoms. When I share my experiences with others they don’t believe me, I’m glad I’m not the only crazy one lol.’
However, some other users noted that because she is plant-based, her diet may have caused the issues.
Other Tesla owners have reported problems with Tesla’s air conditioning system, saying it develops mold – which causes asthma symptoms – because it doesn’t dry out, with some complaining that their cars arrived with a bad smell.
‘My Model Y has a horrific odor from the HVAC whenever it rains. Horrible smell for days,’ one person commented on Livingwithelle’s post.
‘Had it serviced for it and they kept blaming the cabin filter, which was clean, almost new,’ they added, while others confirmed they had experienced the same issue.
Other Tesla drivers have claimed their car had mold in the heating and ventilation that filled the cabin with the smell of mold spores.
‘I paid $119,000 for this car 2 years ago but didn’t know my family and myself would have mold spores injected into our lungs,’ one owner wrote on Reddit.
Although inhaling mold spores can initially cause an asthma reaction, prolonged exposure can develop nosebleeds, blurry vision and headaches, among other symptoms.
However, a National Highway Transportation Safety Administration spokesperson told DailyMail.com: ‘The agency has received only a handful of consumer complaints about carsickness, and none of these complaints involve electric vehicles.’
Electric vehicles are still considered to be the better alternative to gas-powered vehicles, despite any potential risks, because of their positive effects on carbon emissions.
Meanwhile, the Union of Concerned Scientists is ‘very familiar with the adverse health impacts of gasoline-powered vehicles,’ Holtz said.
Gas vehicles’ emissions expose people to toxins like nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and formaldehyde that can cause neurological, cardiovascular and reproductive issues.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Tesla for comment.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13416843/EV-making-passengers-sick-Tesla.html
If you’re wondering why I got a Tesla in the first place, it’s because I moved somewhere rural and would be spending a lot more time on the road. Gas prices in Georgia are pretty low but not like Texas.
Fatigue was the first symptom and it got worse over time. I would come home from grocery shopping and need to lay down in bed for 20 minutes before I could even unload the car. This was after a total of around 2 hours on the road, so at first I didn’t think anything of it. My husband and I would take frequent trips up to Atlanta and after 4+ hours on the road, we would check in to our hotel for the rest of the day and order food delivery. It was only after many long road trips with my mom in a regular car and feeling normal that I realized something was wrong.
The shoulder and neck pain started about a year in and got worse after that. It was most likely caused by the shape of the seats and how much time I spent in them. The headrest is not adjustable and forces you into a forward neck posture with a curved upper back.
I’ve never had nosebleeds in my entire life but suddenly had red tinged tissue after blowing my nose many times. It wasn’t severe and I initially blamed it on weather and controlled burns but they have stopped since selling the car.
The nausea started towards the end and would happen after longer drives. Flying in planes (high radiation) started making me nauseous as well which has never been a problem before.
The hair loss started in the last few months of owning the car and thankfully has stopped After every shower, my brush would be full of hair and would continue to shed excessively throughout the day.
My husband experienced all of these symptoms except for the hair loss and shoulder/neck pain. If you have a Tesla or know someone who does, I would love to hear any stories and experiences! I’ll share what I did to detox and recover in a post soon. Before commenting, keep in mind that what is right for you, may not be right for someone else.
Disclaimer: Am I sure the car caused these symptoms? I’m not 100% sure of anything. Is it likely?
Our symptoms are gone after selling it 5 months ago.“
https://www.instagram.com/livingwellwithelle/reel/C6efOCGJy79/
My husband and I tried blaming anything else for our symptoms until it became so obvious. After reading comments on my last post, I think it’s likely the car was contaminated with hidden mold. I had mold illness from an apartment years ago which caused more serious symptoms like hives all over my body, so I never suspected mold. EMF can increase mold in both the environment and the body by more than 600 times.
Hybrid & Electric Cars: Electromagnetic Radiation Risks
Tuesday, June 18, 2024 – Joel M. Moskowitz, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Family and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley
Hybrid and electric cars may be cancer-causing as they emit extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic fields (EMF). Recent studies of the EMF emitted by these automobiles have claimed either that they pose a cancer risk for the vehicles’ occupants or that they are safe.
Unfortunately, much of the research conducted on this issue has been industry-funded by companies with vested interests on one side of the issue or the other which makes it difficult to know which studies are trustworthy.
Meanwhile, numerous peer-reviewed laboratory studies conducted over several decades have found biologic effects from limited exposures to ELF EMF. These studies suggest that the EMF guidelines established by the self-appointed, International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) are inadequate to protect our health. Based upon the research, more than 250 EMF experts have signed the International EMF Scientist Appeal which calls on the World Health Organization to establish stronger guidelines for ELF and radio frequency EMF. Thus, even if EMF measurements comply with the ICNIRP guidelines, occupants of hybrid and electric cars may still be at increased risk for cancer and other health problems.
Given that magnetic fields have been considered “possibly carcinogenic” in humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization since 2001, the precautionary principle dictates that we should design consumer products to minimize consumers’ exposure to ELF EMF. This especially applies to hybrid and electric automobiles as drivers and passengers spend considerable amounts of time in these vehicles, and health risks increase with the duration of exposure.
In January 2014, SINTEF, the largest independent research organization in Scandinavia, proposed manufacturing design guidelines that could reduce the magnetic fields in electric vehicles (see below). All automobile manufacturers should follow these guidelines to ensure their customers’ safety.
The public should demand that governments adequately fund high-quality research on the health effects of electromagnetic fields that is independent of industry to eliminate any potential conflicts of interest. In the U.S., a major national research and education initiative could be funded with as little as a 5 cents a month fee on mobile phone subscribers.
Following are summaries and links to recent studies and news articles on this topic.
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6/18/2024 Note: The following paper was just published. Also see below a 2020 European Commission study I just added to this post, “Assessment of low frequency magnetic fields in electrified vehicles.”
https://www.saferemr.com/2014/07/shouldnt-hybrid-and-electric-cars-be-re.html
