chicot60
02-22-2011, 12:38 PM
By Jayne O'Donnell, USA TODAY
Burn treatment doctors and safety advocates plan to ask federal regulators and automakers today to address the safety of car seat heaters, which they say have severely burned dozens of paralyzed and otherwise disabled drivers and passengers.
The victims often don't realize the heaters are on or that they are being burned until its far too late, advocates say. David Greenhalgh, a physician and chief of burns at Shriners Hospital for Children in Northern California, says it can take months for a wheelchair-bound person's burns to heal. The "integrity of the skin" can be compromised for the rest of their lives, he says.
The temperatures of some seat heaters — used to keep motorists' backsides warm in cold weather — can reach 160 degrees, according to research by doctors and fire safety experts. Some automakers limit the temperature to 105 degrees, the maximum doctors advise, but others have seats that often reach 120 degrees, which can quickly cause third-degree burns.
VICTIMS: Some people can't feel they're being burned
There have been nine recalls since the mid-1980s for vehicle seat heaters that could get so hot they were a fire risk, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does not necessarily consider it a defect if the heat exceeds human tolerance, says Sean Kane of the advocacy group Safety Research and Strategies. He cites five investigations that were closed without recalls because there was no risk of ignition, only minor injury risk or too few complaints. Kane says he knows of several dozen cases of disabled people burned by seat heaters.
Even those who can't feel the heat in their seats use seat heaters to warm the rest of their bodies.
"A seat heater that gets hot enough to scorch the seat" has a defect and should be recalled, Kane says.
Kane, Greenhalgh and other burn treatment doctors are sending letters to NHTSA and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers today. Along with pushing NHTSA to treat hot seats as a defect, they are asking the trade group to urge its members to disconnect seat heaters for those with lower body sensory deficits, set a maximum temperature for seat warmers and install timers that automatically turn them off, as some automakers already do.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it did not want to comment on the letter before seeing it, but said in a statement, "In all defect cases, NHTSA looks at the frequency and severity of the problem to assess risk." The alliance declined to comment.
"It's a common sense thing — you have something that burns people and a population at risk," Greenhalgh says. "People need to know about it."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2011-02-22-hotseats22_ST_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
Burn treatment doctors and safety advocates plan to ask federal regulators and automakers today to address the safety of car seat heaters, which they say have severely burned dozens of paralyzed and otherwise disabled drivers and passengers.
The victims often don't realize the heaters are on or that they are being burned until its far too late, advocates say. David Greenhalgh, a physician and chief of burns at Shriners Hospital for Children in Northern California, says it can take months for a wheelchair-bound person's burns to heal. The "integrity of the skin" can be compromised for the rest of their lives, he says.
The temperatures of some seat heaters — used to keep motorists' backsides warm in cold weather — can reach 160 degrees, according to research by doctors and fire safety experts. Some automakers limit the temperature to 105 degrees, the maximum doctors advise, but others have seats that often reach 120 degrees, which can quickly cause third-degree burns.
VICTIMS: Some people can't feel they're being burned
There have been nine recalls since the mid-1980s for vehicle seat heaters that could get so hot they were a fire risk, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does not necessarily consider it a defect if the heat exceeds human tolerance, says Sean Kane of the advocacy group Safety Research and Strategies. He cites five investigations that were closed without recalls because there was no risk of ignition, only minor injury risk or too few complaints. Kane says he knows of several dozen cases of disabled people burned by seat heaters.
Even those who can't feel the heat in their seats use seat heaters to warm the rest of their bodies.
"A seat heater that gets hot enough to scorch the seat" has a defect and should be recalled, Kane says.
Kane, Greenhalgh and other burn treatment doctors are sending letters to NHTSA and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers today. Along with pushing NHTSA to treat hot seats as a defect, they are asking the trade group to urge its members to disconnect seat heaters for those with lower body sensory deficits, set a maximum temperature for seat warmers and install timers that automatically turn them off, as some automakers already do.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it did not want to comment on the letter before seeing it, but said in a statement, "In all defect cases, NHTSA looks at the frequency and severity of the problem to assess risk." The alliance declined to comment.
"It's a common sense thing — you have something that burns people and a population at risk," Greenhalgh says. "People need to know about it."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2011-02-22-hotseats22_ST_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip