ISO Certified High Quality Extrusion Grade Soft PVC Compound Granules

Dioxin: PVC's Lethal Legacy

Dioxin and dioxin-like compounds are unintentionally created whenever chlorine-based chemicals are produced, used or burned. Evidence suggests that, throughout its entire lifecycle, PVC is responsible for a greater share of the nation's annual dioxin burden than any other industrial product. Large amounts of dioxin are produced during the various stages of PVC production, and the abundance of PVC items in medical waste and garbage is one reason incinerators are considered the largest sources of dioxins. Thousands of accidental fires in buildings containing PVC result in releases of dioxin in ash and soot, contaminating both the environment and the affected building.

Dioxin is known as one of the most toxic chemicals ever produced. In its ongoing study of dioxin, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggests that there is no safe level of dioxin exposure. Thus any dose, no matter how low, can result in severe health damage. The EPA has also concluded that the levels of dioxin currently found in most adults and children are already high enough to present significant health threats to the American public.

A Case for Environmental Justice

Because dioxin and other chlorinated chemicals can migrate around the world, the harmful effects of PVC production are felt everywhere. Some communities, however, are hit far harder than others. Of the 14 U.S. plants that make VCM (vinyl chloride monomer, the building block used to make PVC) all but one are located in Louisiana and Texas.

These plants release huge amounts of toxic chemicals into the environment around them. Discharged pollutants impact nearby drinking water supplies and on-site incinerators spread dioxin and other hazardous compounds into the air. Nearby communities, farms, and fishing areas suffer the consequences.

Many vinyl facilities are located in poor communities with little political clout. Government policies sanction and encourage this practice. In the U.S., poor African-American communities are disproportionally impacted. This is a classic case of environmental racism.

In the most severe cases, entire communities have been literally wiped off the map. In 1987, the town of Reveilletown, Louisiana became so contaminated that all 106 residents were relocated and every structure torn down, even the church. Management of the nearby Dow Chemical factory followed suit soon after, buying out the entire town of Morrisonville, Louisiana.

By cutting PVC use, you are striking a blow for environmental justice, and supporting the life and death struggle being waged today by local residents on the front lines of the grassroots toxics movement.

Because PVC on its own is almost useless, it must be combined with a number of additives in order to give it the properties desired in the final product. These additives include toxic plasticizers (such as phthalates), stabilizers containing dangerous heavy metals (such as lead), fungicides, and other toxic substances. Because these additives are not chemically bound to the PVC, the PVC product itself can be immediately dangerous to the consumer. Additives can wash out, pass into other materials or be lost to air. Examples of potential human exposure are as numerous as the PVC products themselves. The smell of new car interiors is a familiar example of what experts call chemical "fogging" from PVC products. Plasticizers have been shown to be directly transferred from PVC plastic "cling film" to food. Children teethe on vinyl toys which contain toxic additives. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning in 1996 when it discovered that PVC miniblinds were giving off lead dust, which can have brain-damaging effects on children.

Increasing scientific evidence suggests that many of these chemicals are disrupting the hormone systems of wildlife, leading to birth defects, infertility, reproductive difficulties and developmental problems in offspring. There is increasing evidence that the same trends are being observed in humans world-wide, including decreased sperm counts, rising rates of certain cancers, deformities of the reproductive organs, mental problems such as attention deficit disorder, and weakened immune systems.

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