Ideal Bite

OMG! This is so sickening. The shower curtain alone isn't my concern but straws? We're all sipping through dangerous materials? This is really nuts. As a planet we've gone sooooo far in the wrong direction, it's truly scary. It's like there is no where you can run or hide. Do fast food cups also have PVC in them? Clearly when it comes to profit nothing is sacred. If we're all dead, who is going to spend all that cash? Humm. Yeah. It's 8:53 and I NEED A BEER...or better yet a cocktail.

PVC is the poster child for our three-eyed consumer/industrial system...and this generation's asbestos, I bet. PVC correlates to increases in asthma in children, a disease that's risen almost 200% in the past few decades. Studies of more than 10,000 houses, and dust samples from children's bedrooms, conclude that moisture and PVC essentially equal sustantially higher rates of asthma. Other PVC compounds and phthalates are proven endocrine disruptors and carcinogens. Even our Federal Consumer Safety Commission something or other asked manufacturers to "voluntarily" remove phthalate compounds from baby pacifiers, in 1999. Check out: http://www.healthybuilding.net/pvc/index.html Phthatalates, a class of plastic softeners, are ubiquitous...in some shampoos, toothpaste, hospital IV's (there's a super-scary Harvard health study out about phthalate concentrations in premature baby intensive care units), shower curtains, almost anywhere a PVC/plastic product requires softening. Check out: http://www.healthybuilding.net/news/babies-061705.html http://www.pharosproject.net/wiki/index.php?title=Phthalate Worst is that most PVC flooring products go into affordable housing...those least able to avoid the adverse health consequences of PVC are disproportionately more the victim. At this point, with all the information out there, it should be freaking criminal to manufacture another ounce of PVC.

Everyone should check out the movie "Blue Vinyl", a well-done documentary that focuses on the environmental and health dangers associated with vinyl siding in building construction. I don't think you'll find it at your neighborhood Blockbuster, so check out: http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/bv.html You could say the film is a bit on the pricey side, but the money supports a higher cause. Actually, you may be able to find a "pirated" copy somewhere among your Biter friends.

Hi! I was reading your comments about PVC, and I thought this would cheer you up! A company called Simple Memory Art (www.SimpleMemoryArt.com) makes these super cute, 100% EVA shower curtains. The designs are to inspire learning in the home, but keeping it lighthearted and fun. My personal favorite is the solar system design: http://www.simplememoryart.com/shop_SC808.html. I get tons of compliments on it, and even my male roommate noticed that it doesn't have the icky PVC smell that most curtains do. It's also a lot softer, and the design looks so pretty because they're silk screened. You should really check them out! Have a nice day! -Marissa-

the article was fine but ugly comments such as "ridiculous cat suit" aren't going to win you the converts of at present "unbelievers", you'd like to have. Please stay informational. The articles are wonderful and speak for themselves. Turning into a "Daily Candy" - like op ed is really irrittating.

It is hard to believe that a world where everyone is so obsessed about reading food labels, is so ignorant of the other equally or more alarming health evils that are even more pervasive in our lives. Outside of living in a bio-dome, or having limitless $ to build a green home, consumers must spread the word to a point where a high profile spokespersion (such as Al Gore with global warming), embraces this issue as their own and brings it to the mainstream consciousness.

Until today's Bite I had no idea about PVCs. This was the scariest Bite yet, and I'm ready to head home and store away (do I throw it away?) all the bad plastic. If you wanted to do more Bites on PVCs, that'd be great by me. Clearly I need to learn more. Oh, and the bit about the cat suit was funny. Your writing style is great -- please don't change.

Some of the plastic listed above don't have symbols on them so how do we check?

hey ron. green building doesn't need to cost a dollar more, and will actually save financial, natural and human "capital" over a home's lifecycle (yours too). sure, certain green building elements do cost more...recycled glass tile and photovoltaic elements, for example. but taking a whole systems approach, balancing costs against benefits and different materials and systems against each other, can produce a higher quality, more healthy, resource and energy efficient home at no additional cost but with buttloads (sorry i just read today's tip about flatulence) of value. that means balancing the costs of a more energy efficient thermal envelope against the savings of rightsizing your HVAC system. doing something like that can actually bring a more expensive technology like geothermal into the affordable realm, since more energy efficient wall systems mean smaller geothermal well fields. it's about achieving multiple benefits with that same dollar, through a whole systems, lifecycle balancing. it's about capturing the free income of passive solar instead of purchasing capital-intensive PV systems with decade-long paybacks (and not incidentally, tremendous embodied energy costs). or cork floating floors instead of vinyl. even the stuff with a higher first cost...what's the value of good health? or ecosystem services like free water purification, CO2 sequestration, habitat, food production, etc? we tried replicating these services with the Biosphere II project, and quickly learned they're irreplaceable at any cost. to me, that means priceless.

I'm wondering about the squeezable plastic tubes that many beauty products come in. I couldn't find any with the number or letter codes showing what kind of plastic they are. Do they contain PVC as well?