# "Cures" for car-sickness - those plastic strips? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 11, 2002, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cures-for-car-sickness-those-plastic-strips/136268 "2002-11-11T09:04:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Aro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cures-for-car-sickness-those-plastic-strips/136268/1 "2002-11-11T09:04:10Z")
**RE:** Those plastic strips with the copper wire embedded in them which drag behind a car… What is the originally perceived advantage of having these on your car? What were they designed to do? Earth the car? Reduce static electricity? Do they have **any** scientific validity _at all_? What was the speel used to advertise them? What did they actually claim to do? I used to suffer from car sickness a lot as a kid . I seem to remember, as a child, that I never got sick in my Grandfathers car, which had these strips fitted. Was it _purely_ psychosomatic? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cures-for-car-sickness-those-plastic-strips/136268/2 "2002-11-11T14:58:03Z")
Are you talking about “curb feelers”? I never understood those. But a common cure for car sickness is peppermint oil. If you have any of the real good tasting peppermint candies, they have alot of peppermint oil in them and help ease that queasy feeling. Strange but true. ---
**Author:** ![Aro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cures-for-car-sickness-those-plastic-strips/136268/3 "2002-11-11T15:33:33Z")
I was talking about the strips of plastic (two of) which are connected to the rear bumper of a car and hang down to just touch the ground behind the car. They have a thin copper wire running the length of them and I have heard it claimed that they stop car-sickness by… whatever means. I’m thinking they are perhaps a UK phenomenon only. Can’t find a picture of them…sorry. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cures-for-car-sickness-those-plastic-strips/136268/4 "2002-11-11T16:07:18Z")
What you are describing are “grounding straps” for the dissipation of static electricity. Same reason trucks have dragged chains behind them for a long time. Newer tire materials make buildup of static electricity more prevelant, and some people put those things on their cars if they are getting shocks when getting out of their cars. Click and Clack have discussed them a couple of times. I have never heard that they did anything one way or another for car sickness, and I don’t see how they could. ---
**Author:** ![Aro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cures-for-car-sickness-those-plastic-strips/136268/5 "2002-11-11T16:19:24Z")
Yep, sounds about right. But there was a time (in the '80’s) when they were definitely marketed as a product that stopped car sickness. Certainly people bought them for this reason. (I must have really believed in them as a kid, 'cause I didnt get sick in my Grandfathers car.) How a reduction in static might somehow stop travel sickness was also beyond me, hence the initial question. Seem like the same kind of base idea that led to belief that copper bracelets can cure rheumatism. and all that.