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BANG FOR THE BITE
PVC is everywhere, but more companies (especially toy manufacturers) are switching to better plastics, making "light-green living" a little easier.
COCKTAIL FACT
The first piece of music ever recorded on vinyl was Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, in 1948.
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home › tip library › PVC - Free Products and Alternatives
How safe's the plastic in your vinyl dominatrix costume?
The Bite
It could be safer. PVC (polyvinyl chloride) is the most dangerous plastic around due to the cancer-causing chems it releases during and after the production of PVC products like toys, shower curtains and yep, that ridiculous - er, sexy - catsuit, so go for alternatives.The Benefits
- Better health for you. Blood samples of people near a PVC plant in Louisiana had 3 times the average levels of cancer-causing chems.
- Better health for kids. The EU banned the use of PVC in kids' toys in '05, and some U.S. cities are following suit.
- Non-PVC plastics are easier to recycle. PVC is difficult, which is why only about 0.1%-3% of post-consumer PVC (recycle symbol #3) is recycled.
Personally Speaking
Ideal Bite team member Kay makes sure most things in her home, including her daughter's toys, are PVC-free, but she's not giving up her old-school vinyl records (or that certain catsuit).Wanna Try?
Avoid the recycle symbol #3 or the letter V on plastic products (both of which indicate PVC). Check out "Like This Tip?" (at left) for links to Biter-approved products, and also check these everyday items more carefully:- Apparel: backpacks, boots, diaper covers, handbags, luggage, raincoats, shoes, watchbands.
- Household: fake Christmas trees, imitation leather furniture, mattress covers, photo albums, shelving, strollers, shower curtains, toys.
- Kitchen: drink containers, dish drying racks, drinking straws, food containers, food wrap, plastic utensils, tablecloths.
- Office: binders, clipboards, paper clips, tape.
- Outdoor: balls, kids' swimming pools, garden hoses, inflatable furniture, tarps.
- Center for Health, Environment and Justice - a list of safe, PVC-free alternative products.
Apr 26,2007
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PVC & Three-Eyed Fish
True story... I lived in the NW corner of Alabama for 3 months while my then-boyfriend tried to finish a book that he probably still doesn't have an outline for. It was like a study-abroad experience. It definitely felt like a movie, with crazy Southern accents and ideologies (and remember, I am from Atlanta so I promise you they were pretty damn extreme). The craziest part, though, was all these stories that the old timers had, and somehow the press wasn't powerful enough (or brave enough) to bring them to light.
The one I remember most clearly is the case of a certain big bad awful company dumping toxic sludge from a PVC plant into a river. Their scientist supposedly tested the water all the time and it was just fine. But when a local non-profit did the test, they found levels of carcinogenic chems at 3000x the allowable level. When they put a fish in the water in a walled-off area, it only took him 5 minutes to start swimming side ways. Of course the true old-timers will tell you that they saw three-eyed fish in that there river before it was fenced off for health reasons. I believe them.
Humans are so damn clever, you know? But clever to a fault. We've figured out how to make things that can't be destroyed (genius if we actually kept a shower curtain for 1,000 years in our family). HOPEFULLY we will soon shift that cleverness to the right direction, like getting off oil and returning to what is really SMART...connections between land and people.
-Jen... off to drink a beer. That was intense, dude...
The one I remember most clearly is the case of a certain big bad awful company dumping toxic sludge from a PVC plant into a river. Their scientist supposedly tested the water all the time and it was just fine. But when a local non-profit did the test, they found levels of carcinogenic chems at 3000x the allowable level. When they put a fish in the water in a walled-off area, it only took him 5 minutes to start swimming side ways. Of course the true old-timers will tell you that they saw three-eyed fish in that there river before it was fenced off for health reasons. I believe them.
Humans are so damn clever, you know? But clever to a fault. We've figured out how to make things that can't be destroyed (genius if we actually kept a shower curtain for 1,000 years in our family). HOPEFULLY we will soon shift that cleverness to the right direction, like getting off oil and returning to what is really SMART...connections between land and people.
-Jen... off to drink a beer. That was intense, dude...
Biter Comments...
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?
I'm not a guy who wears makeup ;), but last I read...almost any type of PVC or plastic requiring softening contains plasticizers (i.e., softeners), most of which contain phthalates. So not just those squeezable tubes, BUT THE PRODUCTS THEMSELVES...the stuff we're brushing our teeth, washing our faces, receiving blood transfusions, etc...
PVC is flat out evil!
What about those "dryer balls"? Was just at the Green Living Show in Toronto and about to buy some (they replace fabric softener which is EVIL and also reduce drying times)... then I asked the woman what kind of plastic they were. She says PVC. The woman ahead of me freaks out and returns the dryer balls she just bought! The seller kept saying that they were approved by Parenting magazine... anyway, any ideas about if this use of PVC is safe? I mean, I agree with the woman who returned them... it's incredibly bad for the environment and that alone is reason enough to avoid them. I think the company is called Nellie's that sells them...
n
Niki, it's true. But in my mind, since they last forever, they are the lessor of the evils. I mean think how many thousands of dryer sheets you'd go through. And why not make sure they are passed on to your kids and their kids. ;-) Jen
PVC is evil. Evil now, evil forever!
There's just no good ecological lifecycle aspect to PVC, even if you pass that dryer ball down as a family heirloom.
Do going with lesser evils make you happy? In this case, not buying balls altogether makes the most sense!
Is there any such thing as a drinking straw that doesn't contain PVC?
u kno, what u said about the shower curtain...brilliant. i loved it. maybe if there were more sayings that gave an honest reality-check as opposed to car commercials, saving the world would be less taboo and more "hey, ya idiot! I AM trying to save the world!! sheesh".
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PHOTO ALBUMS
Posted by: Tootsie Woo-Woo | April 26, 2007 at 06:50 AM