Scientists warn of serious risk every time you get into a car

A new study has warned that each time you clamber into your car, you could be putting yourself at risk.

Now that's somewhat obvious as you're getting inside a metal brick on wheels which is powered by exploding primordial ooze and can go at speeds which far outstrip that any human could normally reach.

You might crash into something, something might crash into you, or you might just go off the road and end up upside down.

Weird and sometimes horrifically painful things can happen when you go in a car, but that's not what the scientists have been talking about this time.

It turns out that certain automotive interiors might have put the 'car' into 'carcinogenic', as a study found that the vast majority of car interiors made in the US since 2015 had potentially carcinogenic materials inside.

The interior of your car may contain dangerous compounds. (Getty Stock Photo)

To clarify, carcinogenic means a material which promotes the development of cancer, so while it's not guaranteed to leave you seriously unwell, it's not going to do you any favours.

A team of researchers from the US and Canada studied 101 vehicles made in the US since 2015, and found that 99 percent of them contained something called tris(1-chloro-isopropyl) phosphate, which is a flame retardant substance that's being investigated for potential links to cancer.

This test, conducted by scientists from Duke University and the Green Science Policy Institute, asked 101 people to hang a silicone sampler on their rear-view mirror for a week.

The vast majority of samplers in cars ended up picking up traces of carcinogenic material, and study co-author Professor Heather Stapleton told Medical News Today about the danger of something called organophosphate esters (OPEs).

She said: "OPEs are increasingly used as both flame retardants and plasticizers - i.e. chemicals that change the properties of plastics - in various materials.

Researchers are worried about carcinogens inside cars. (Getty Stock Photo)

"Car interiors often contain a large proportion of plastic components that are likely sources of these OPEs, such as the foam in the interior roof lining, the seats, the electronics in the dashboards, etc.

"The more plastics we surround ourselves with in our daily lives, the more exposure we will have to these chemicals, particularly inside a car interior where the space is relatively small compared to a home or building."

Tris(1-chloro-isopropyl) phosphate is one of these OPEs and was the main fire retardant and is found in the foam of car seats.

Stapleton explained that tris(1-chloro-isopropyl) phosphate could be carcinogenic and that high exposures might be dangerous.