Sanitation In Your Car
The United States is known for being a nation of cars, and many adult Americans have their own car, jeep, or pickup truck and drive them often. After all, more than 200 million Americans have their own valid driver’s license, showing that driving a car is the standard mode of vehicular transportation in the United States today. There are many aspects of owning a car, from loan payments to body repair to aesthetics, but an often overlooked aspect of car ownership is sanitation. The inside of a car can get quite dirty, and not all American car owners are diligent about keeping the interior of their vehicles clean. Often, airborne pollution will get into the car and lower its air quality, and this may set off allergies or asthma in some drivers or passengers. And even if that doesn’t happen, auto flooring such as car carpets or trunk mats may get filthy over time. Floor mats and trunk mats are are not often cleaned or replaced as much as they should be, and those dirty trunk mats may be a health hazard. If American car drivers knew how dirty their trunk mats were, they would replace them in a hurry.
Air Quality Inside a Car
Cars today have air filters for their air conditioning and heating, and car owners often make use of them for car climate control. The car’s air filters will try to remove many airborne particles from the air before it gets into the car cabin, but these filters can’t quite remove everything, and air over a road or a highway can be dense in pollution. In fact, some studies have shown that a typical car’s interior has two to 10 times as much pollution as the air over a freeway. Many Americans, in surveys, have said that they are concerned about filth in their cars, and around 90% of survey respondents expressed concern about air quality in their cars. Airborne particles or bacteria may set off allergies or asthma, or they may reduce cognitive function in the driver. Other studies, done in office buildings, showed that greatly reducing the concentration of airborne particles boosted cognitive performance of everyone inside that clean building.
A car driver may avoid the worst of this air pollution when they drive in the cleanest lanes on the road. For example, a driver should avoid being right behind a diesel car or truck, and they may also use the carpool lane, if able, where the air may be 30-50% cleaner. After all, no tucks or buses even use the carpool lane, making for relatively clean air. A car owner may also ensure that their car air filters are inspected and replaced if necessary at an auto shop. This may be done by different companies than those who can provide car floor mats or trunk mats, however.
Floor Mats
Cars and pickup trucks today have their own carpeting underfoot, as well as removable floor mats in the passenger area and trunk mats in the trunk (the “boot” in the UK). What is the problem here? Such mats and carpeting have a lot of fibers to make for a soft and pleasant surface, but those fibers may also trap bacteria, spilled food or drinks, dirt, dust, and bacteria. Like with a dirty carpet in a building, dirty car mats or carpeting may be a health hazard, since many different species of bacteria (some harmful) may thrive in those dirty carpets. That, and such dirty carpets may simply be unpleasant to look at and may give off noxious odors. After all, a car driver will place their groceries in the trunk, and it’s unsanitary to expose their food to such germ-ridden mats and carpeting. Spilled food and drink in particular will attract a lot of bacteria and allow colonies to grow there.
To fix this, a car owner may have their car carpets professionally washed and cleaned off to remove food and drink stains, dirt, and of course all bacteria in them. This eliminates the sanitation issue and also makes those carpets and mats nicer to look at. This, and their refreshed scent, may make the car feel much fresher and more pleasant to drive in. Old, damaged mats may be replaced entirely.
