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International Authorities Turn Up the Heat on Toxic Flame Retardants in Building Materials (November 6, 2008)
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Resources
On HBN's PVC Resources page, you'll find "must-read" documents, groundbreaking reports, and critical data.
General
- Sorting Out the Vinyls: When is "Vinyl" Not PVC? This fact sheet distinguishes the other vinyls (PVA, PVB and EVA) from polyvinyl chloride.
- PVC Fact
Sheet
An overview of the specific concerns in the health care industry of PVC in health care green
building materials. (April 2006)
- "BLUE VINYL" DVD RELEASED: FILLED WITH "ACTIVIST EXTRAS" AND CONCRETE STORIES OF IMPACT OF THE PVC-FREE REVOLUTION
Since its triumphant debut at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and its broadcast on HBO in 2003, BLUE VINYL has been part of a revolution to reduce our country's dependence on polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the most ubiquitous plastic in our consumer society and one of the most toxic known to science.
- PVC, Bad News Comes In Threes: The Poison Plastic, Health Hazards & The Looming Waste Crisis
(12/04 - Center for Health, Environment & Justice) This report documents the health and environmental hazards during manufacturing, product use and disposal, and provides national and state estimates on PVC waste incinerated and landfilled. Also, see a related story in the Christian Science Monitor.
- Building Green Without Going in the Red (Citizen's Environmental Coalition) (PDF)
Everyday building products can be made of toxic materials, and people choose them, unaware of the health and environmental problems they can cause during their manufacture, use and disposal. The good news is that there are safer, healthier options. This guide developed by the Citizen's Environmental Coalition presents the toxic problems of conventional building materials, discusses safer, cost-effective options and provides examples of those alternatives and where to find them in easy-to-read tables.
- HBN's PVC-free MUST READS (PDF)
A top ten list of the most important documents that make the case for supporting PVC-free products and policies.
- PVC & the Looming Waste Crisis
This December, 2004,
report concludes that PVC waste disposal creates perpetual hazards to the environment and human
health.
- Definitions
Key words and phrases related to PVC: dioxin, life cycle, phthalates, endocrine disrupting, body burden, persistent, bioaccumulative, organochlorines.
Scientific Reports
- Toxics
Fact Sheet
A basic fact sheet providing an overview of some of the primary concerns with chlorinated plastics
(and other materials and chemicals of concern) in building materials. (May 2008)
- Vinyl Chloride: A Case Study of Data Suppression
and Misrepresentation (PDF)
When the US EPA finalized its 2000 update of the toxicological effects of vinyl chloride (VC), it was concerned with two issues: 1) the classification of vinyl chloride as a carcinogen and 2) the numerical estimate of its potency. This Environmental Health Perspectives commentary describes how the EPA review of VC toxicology, which was drafted with substantial input from the chemical industry, weakened safeguards on both points.
- Update on the Environmental Health Impacts of PVC as a Building Material: Evidence from 2000-2004 (PDF)
On April 2, 2004 the Healthy Building Network submitted an update of the scientific evidence published since its December 2000 submission to the USGBC on environmental health effects of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) building materials. The document is intended to serve as a reader's guide to the primary documents, reports, and data submitted to the USGBC's Technical and Scientific Advisory Committee (TSAC) in response to its November 2003 solicitation for evidence.
- Environmental Impacts of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Building Materials (Summary)
This report exhaustively reviews the science behind the environmental health problems created through out the life cycle of PVC as used in building materials
Download Summary (PDF)
Download full report (1.5 MB PDF)
For a paper copy of this report, send a check for $25 payable
to "Healthy Building Network" to Healthy Building Network, 927 15th Street NW, 4th Floor, Washington, DC 20005.
- Toxic Data Bias and the Challenges of Using LCA in the Design Community
This paper outlines some important inherent structural constraints on the ability of life cycle
analysis (LCA) to address a range of toxic chemicals and their related human health issues. The report uses case studies to demonstrate how this problem can lead LCAs to improperly weigh
environmental impact and give an apparent environmental blessing to materials with high toxic
impact. Recommendations are made for redesigning LCAs to account for these issues.
- Reaching the Limits of Quantitative Life
Cycle Assessment
A critique by Mark Rossi, PhD of Clean Production Action reviewing an April 2004 report entitled
"A Critical Review of Life Cycle Assessment of PVC and of Principal Competing Materials" and
authored by a consortium led by PE Europe GmbH. This report was commissioned, but not endorsed, by the European Commission. This critique discusses the fundamental flaws of the Review
PVC Alternatives
PVC Product Reports
- The Economics of Phasing Out PVC (PDF) by Frank
Ackerman, director of the Research and Policy Program, Global Development and Environment
Institute at Tufts University.
Vinyl may have a cheap look and feel, but this report released by Tufts University researchers
concludes the economic advantages of PVC are overstated, and that substituting PVC with safer
alternatives is cost-effective and practical.
- PVC-Free Pipe for Purchasers Report - An
analysis of the primary PVC-free pipe materials in use in the Unied States
--- Printer friendly version (PDF)
- Message In a Bottle: The Impacts of PVC on Plastic
Recycling (PDF) - June 16, 2004 - A report issued by GRRN (Grassroots Recycling Network)
provides evidence that PVC bottles and labels threaten the PET bottle recycling infrastructure and
the continued development of bottle-to-bottle PET recycling.
- Greening Divisions 15 & 16: Plumbing, Electric
Cable, and Switching (PDF) - Gail Vittori, Co-Director of the Center for Maximum Potential
Building Systems, gave this presentation summarizing environmental issues and alternatives with
plumbing, electric cable, and switching at the Greenbuild Conference in November, 2003.
PVC Additive Reports
Legal Documents
- Vinyl Industry Concedes in New York
In a victory for the growing movement to avoid the use of hazardous vinyl plastic (aka polyvinyl
chloride or PVC), the vinyl industry dropped its lawsuit contesting New York State's refusal to
recognize vinyl flooring as a "green" building material just a week before the June 6th hearing date.
Read the Press Release
Read the Affidavit of the NY AG's
toxicologist
Emerging Science
News
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