PVC or polyvinyl chloride plastic, which is commonly referred to as vinyl, is one of the most hazardous consumer products ever created on earth. PVC is a major thermoplastic material, used in a very wide variety of applications and products. It’s essential raw materials are derived from salts and oil. The electrolysis of salt water produces chlorine, which is then combined with ethylene obtained from oil, to form vinyl chloride monomer (VCM). A customised PVC compound is made by adding appropriate additives to the polymerised VCM molecules. PVC is not only dangerous to human health, but it is also a disaster to the environment throughout its entire life cycle, from the factory to our homes and even in the trash.

    PVC’s major characteristic making it a highly versatile polymer resulting in it’s wide spread usage is its compatibility with variety of additives. PVC can be plasticised to make it flexible for use in flooring, making toys and medical products etc. The Unplasticised or rigid PVC, also known as PVC-U is also extensively used in building applications such as window frames, pipes etc. These properties of PVC has made it a highly demanded compound being used in a variety of consumer products such as packaging, cling film, bottles, credit cards, sandwich box packaging and imitation leather as well as construction materials such as window frames, cables, pipes, flooring, wallpaper and window blinds. Not only this but PVC is also used by car manufacturers for car interiors and manufacturers manufacturing medical disposables for use in hospitals/clinics.

    PVC is virtually useless without the addition of a plethora of toxic additives or plasticizers, which adds flexibility to PVC making it a vinyl. A large quantity of these plasticizers i.e. up to 60 percent to the total weight of the final product, is mixed into the PVC to provide the required flexibility. Phthalate plasticizers are the dominant group of plasticizers used in vinyl to provide flexibility to other wise rigid PVC. Phthalates are a class of compounds which pose considerable health risk along with environmental hazards. DEHP is one of the most common toxic phthalate additives as it is a suspected carcinogen and reproductive toxicant, which is widely found in PVC products. These chemicals can easily evaporate or leach out of PVC, posing a greater risk to consumers directly in contact with these products. Children are the most potential risk bearers as a wide range of toys are made of PVC, releasing toxins directly into the child’s body either through direct chewing or through inhaling toxins while playing.

    Lead and other heavy metal are added to vinyl as stabilizers for construction and other extended-life applications. Lead, cadmium and organotins, are the most common PVC additives that are particularly hazardous for both environment and human health. These metal stabilizers are highly toxic in nature, for example lead is a potent developmental toxicant which damages brain development, reducing the cognitive ability and IQ of children. Cadmium is again a potential neurotoxin and carcinogen element which interferes with the normal functioning of the nervous system and can cause cancer. Organotins also have the potential to suppress immunity and can disrupt the endocrine system. Metal stabilizers are released from vinyl products through their life cycle in all the phases from its formulation, to uses, and even when disposed. These metals do not degrade in the environment meaning they resist environmental breakdown which has caused them to become global pollutants. Metals cannot be destroyed by incineration either and are thus released into the environment, via air emissions or ash residues. Trash incinerators are a dominant source of lead and cadmium pollution presently in the world.

    Dioxins, a large group of structurally and toxicologically related compounds are amongst the most important by-products of the PVC lifecycle. Dioxins are not manufactured purposely but are accidentally formed whenever chlorine gas or chlorine-based organic chemicals are burned. Dioxin, a known human carcinogenic gas which can be formed during the manufacturing or during the incineration or burning of PVC products. Vinyl is a major source of dioxin which is formed during numerous stages of the vinyl’s lifecycle. Accidental fires in buildings with PVC fittings are and increasing source of dioxins in the environment. Dioxins are global pollutants like lead and cadmium released from PVC stabilizers. Dioxins can now be found in the tissues of deep oceans whales, Arctic polar bears and virtually in tissues of every human being on earth. Dioxin in the tissues of the nursing mothers concentrates in breast milk which is then passed on to the infants.

    Dioxin is reported to cause damage to the normal development and reproduction pattern, apart from disrupting the immunity and endocrine systems even at infinitesimally low doses. Dioxin poses health risks to all. According to a study, the dioxin “body burden” of masses in the United States is already in the range at which adverse health impacts occur in laboratory animals.

    What makes PVC a lethal element during its life cycle is the persistent bio-accumulative toxicity of certain of it’s by products. This means that PVC produces certain chemicals or gasses which resist natural degradation resulting in their build up in the environment over time as global pollutants. Some of these substances have the ability to get accumulated in the body fat and there fore builds up in the body tissue of living beings. These bio accumulative substances magnify as they move up in the food chain making the species on the top of the food chain most vulnerable as they have the highest concentration of these deadly substances with in their bodies. These deadly chemicals are passed on to the infants of humans and mammals as they concentrate in the breast milk of nursing mothers.

    Through out its entire life cycle, PVC produces gasses and compounds that are dangerous to the human health and the environment. Our bodies today are contaminated with poisonous chemicals such as phthalates, mercury and dioxins etc., which are released during the PVC lifecycle, which may pose irreversible life-long health threats. These chemicals can now be found in the deep ocean waters, in air of remote regions, and even in the tissues and fluids of the humans and animals. Dioxins which are a group of the most potential synthetic chemicals ever tested are released during manufacturing or burning of PVC which has the potential to cause cancer, damage the immune system and also the reproductive systems. Dioxins are even produced during the incineration of vinyl products. Phthalates which are added to PVC as chemical additives can evaporate or leach out of PVC, posing risks to the consumers. Phthalate which is readily found in numerous PVC products like toys, music records, shower curtains, pipes etc. is a suspected carcinogen and reproductive toxicant. Chewing of vinyl toys exposes children to phthalates as they leach out into their mouth. While selling PVC baby toys containing dangerous phthalates is still legal in US, the European Parliament in July, 2005 permanently banned the use of certain toxic phthalates in toys. One study by EPA found that vinyl shower curtains can cause elevated levels of dangerous air toxins, which can persist for more than a month. Even when disposed off in landfills phthalates are released into the environment from the vinyl products. As phthalates are not chemically bonded to the plastic they tend to leach out of the plastic over time into air, water, or other substances in contact. Phthalates have been found to severely damage the reproductive system, causing infertility, testicular damage, sperm reduction, suppressed ovulation, abnormal development and function of the testes and male reproductive tract; and may also cause reproductive birth defects. Metal stabilizers like lead, cadmium and organotins etc. are also released during different phases of manufacturing, used, and disposal of vinyl products. Lead stabilizers are released from interior vinyl building products directly into the environment. As metals cannot be destroyed by incineration they are released entirely into the environment through air emissions or ash residues. Trash incinerators are a dominant source of lead and cadmium pollution. Accidental fires in buildings and landfills are other potentially important sources through which lead, cadmium, and organotins are released into the environment.

    The flexible PVC used in various home applications harms the indoor air quality. These products are potential the health hazards as they release phthalates into the indoor air and also facilitates the growth of hazardous molds. Phthalate thus released accumulates on suspended sediments or indoor dusts. Few epidemiological studies have found that exposure to PVC in building interiors causes significantly elevated risks of asthma and other pulmonary conditions, which includes bronchial obstruction, wheezing, pneumonia, prolonged cough, and irritation of the nasal passages and eyes. Heavy metals are released into the indoor environment in buildings with PVC products. Vinyl window blinds releases significant lead into the indoor air and PVC pipes contaminate the pipe water with lead after leaching out of the pipes. Toxic mold growth is encouraged by the vinyl wall covering where in the toxic substances are produced by the molds that grow beneath vinyl covering, causing severe human health problems like respiratory and neurological disorders. The other hazards that the firefighters and building occupants face during building fires, is the release of toxic hydrogen chloride gas by the heated PVC material, which is converted into deadly hydrochloric acid when inhaled.

PVC is extremely difficult to recycle and presently very little PVC is recycled globally. As each PVC product contains a unique mix of additives, the post-consumer recycling of these mixed PVC products is difficult. Even when recycled these cannot yield vinyl products with equivalent qualities to the original. Even in the most advanced Europe where PVC recycling is the maximum, only less than 3 percent of post-consumer PVC is recycled. PVC can even contaminate the entire recycling batch due to its mix of different toxic additives in it and in fact just one PVC bottle can contaminate a recycling load of 100,000 PET bottles, according to a study.

PVC which is now one of the most environmentally hazardous consumer materials ever produced have presented one opportunity after another in it’s entire life cycle for the formation and discharge of environmental hazardous substances. PVC, an apparently innocent seeming plastic in its entire lifecycle is actually one of the most environmentally hazardous consumer material that has not only produced large quantities of persistent, toxic organochlorines and but has also released them into our indoor and outdoor environs. A significant share of the world’s burden of persistent organic pollutants and endocrine-disrupting chemicals can be credited to the PVC, which includes dioxins and phthalates that are universally embedded in the environment and the bodies of the almost all the living beings. Vinyl without doubts has also considerably contributed to various occupational diseases apart from local level environmental contamination

In a nut shell the chemical substances produced by the PVC during its entire lifecycle are already present in global, local, and workplace environments at unacceptably high levels. Efforts to reduce the production and release of these substances should be our first priority towards a healthy living and safer environment. It is now the time to phase out PVC from our building and our lives. The hazards posed by dioxins, phthalates, metals, vinyl chloride, and ethylene dichloride are largely unique to PVC, which happens to be a major building material globally. PVC building materials represent a significant environmental health risks and thus should be phased and replaced by safer green building material alternatives. Thus more emphasis should be made to come out with safer and greener alternatives in the field of construction.

PVC is also the only major plastic that contains chlorine or requires such dangerous plasticizers and stabilizers. But the good news is that safer, cost-effective, alternatives to PVC are now readily available for almost every use. There is now thankfully a growing market for products ranging from safer plastics to bio-based materials which is replacing the hazardous PVC products. A growing list of companies have understood the changing costumer demand and have committed them selves to phase out PVC products and switching over to safer, healthier products. Bath and Body Works, Honda, Ikea, Johnson and Johnson, Microsoft, Nike, Toyota, Victoria’s Secret, and Wal-Mart are some of the companies who have stepped out to act against the dangers of use of PVC. Each one of us can help build consumer demand for safer and healthier products by avoiding the purchase of PVC. We can do this by looking at the number “3” inside the universal recycling symbol or the letter “V” underneath the recycling symbol. Any product with these symbols represent that the product contains PVC. Another important way of detecting PVC in soft flexible products is their distinct odour such as that of vinyl shower curtains. So the next time you go shopping look for the symbol and keep the poison away from you and your family. Look for alternatives which do not contain PVC and ask the shopkeeper to stock up things free of PVC, creating a demand for PVC alternatives. Take action before its too late, kill the monster PVC from your shelves before it kills you.