Plastic is everywhere. We used vinyl in the 50′s, 60′s and until 2008, when we discovered that PVC 100% vinyl emits volatile vapors of chemicals when we shower or let babies put toys in their mouth, wrap a bib around them and carry it on our handbags and rain coats.
Black plumbing pipe is also called PVC pipe. We don’t handle it and we don’t have it in our bathrooms. It is the little yellow ducky of the 1950′s that were made of pure PVC. Older children’s toys, bicycle handle bars, rubber balls were made of 100% vinyl. We didn’t know it was toxic. What is a VOC?
Volatile Organic Chemicals(VOC’c) emit or give off toxic gases, a total of 108 toxic chemicals, when you shower or leave the shower curtain in the water when you bathe the toddlers.
Does the EPA need to tell us how to dispose of this toxic vinyl?
The United States Environmental Protection Agency describe VOC’s as:
“Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids. VOCs include a variety of chemicals, some of which may have short- and long-term adverse health effects. Concentrations of many VOCs are consistently higher indoors (up to ten times higher) than outdoors. VOCs are emitted by a wide array of products numbering in the thousands. Examples include: paints and lacquers, paint strippers, cleaning supplies, pesticides, building materials and furnishings, office equipment such as copiers and printers, correction fluids and carbonless copy paper, graphics and craft materials including glues and adhesives, permanent markers, and photographic solutions.”
The EPA states the health effects: Health Effects of VOC’s
“Eye, nose, and throat irritation; headaches, loss of coordination, nausea; damage to liver, kidney, and central nervous system. Some organics can cause cancer in animals; some are suspected or known to cause cancer in humans. Key signs or symptoms associated with exposure to VOCs include conjunctival irritation, nose and throat discomfort, headache, allergic skin reaction, dyspnea, declines in serum cholinesterase levels, nausea, emesis, epistaxis, fatigue, dizziness.
The ability of organic chemicals to cause health effects varies greatly from those that are highly toxic, to those with no known health effect. As with other pollutants, the extent and nature of the health effect will depend on many factors including level of exposure and length of time exposed. Eye and respiratory tract irritation, headaches, dizziness, visual disorders, and memory impairment are among the immediate symptoms that some people have experienced soon after exposure to some organics. At present, not much is known about what health effects occur from the levels of organics usually found in homes. Many organic compounds are known to cause cancer in animals; some are suspected of causing, or are known to cause, cancer in humans.”
Sears and Walmart have made a commitment to stock shower curtains without VOC’s. I bought mine from Sears for $15 dollars.
Peva shower curtains are the new material to buy.
Sorting out Vinyl’s in healthy Building
http://www.healthybuilding.net/pvc/SortingOutVinyls.html
“PVC: the Poison Plastic”
http://www.chej.org/BESAFE/pvc/about.htm