Motorists in Europe and Asia get the warnings, but here in the States, we don’t.

Tires six years old or older are hazardous – even if they have never been used on a vehicle. More than vehicle accident 100 deaths in the United States have been caused by old tires that have dried out and lost their treads, even though the tires appeared to be safe.

While members of the British Rubber Manufacturers Association (which includes Goodyear, Firestone, and Michelin brands) have warned that “unused tires” should not be put into use if they are over six years old, the U.S. Tire Industry Association (which represents several of those same companies) has said it has no plans to issue such a warning. The U.S. Association has gone as far as to say that there is no scientific information that points to when a tire should not be used based on age.

The safety experts in the field feel otherwise; extensive research shows that tires begin to deteriorate in “critical” ways even if they are unused or unsold in inventories. These hazardous tires can remain in a store’s inventory for as many as eight or 10 years.

Experts say that the code on a tire’s sidewall can reveal when a tire was manufactured. The code is at the end of a set of letters and numbers on a tire, and until recently, was on the inward facing side of the tire.

For example, the number 379 shows that the tire was manufactured in the 37th week of 1999 and is almost 10 years old – and has the potential to be dangerous, even if the tread still appears to be in good condition.