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Sign up to receive our biweekly email with insights and analysis on building materials and environmental health.
Current Newsletter:
The "New Shower Curtain Smell" May Be Toxic to Your Health (July 1, 2008)
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- Update on the Environmental Health Impacts of PVC as a Building Material: Evidence from 2000-2004 - April, 2004 (PDF)
On April 2, 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.
- Trade Associations are Interested in Green Building: And why you should be interested in them
March 7 - In 1995, one year after
Greenpeace documented widespread, unreported dioxin
contamination at Louisiana vinyl manufacturing plants, the vinyl industry
pledged $1 million to Habitat for Humanity in Louisiana. This earned them the
right to use the Habitat logo, identify themselves as "partners" and
call vinyl the "material of choice for those in need." A pretty good
deal for an industry accused of systematically ruining healthy communities.
- HBN update on TSAC meeting from Feb. 25
Highlights and observations from USGBC's February 18, 2004 PVC Task Force stakeholders meeting.
- Letter from the International POPS Elimination Network (IPEN) to the USGBC (PDF)
IPEN, representing more than 350 public health, environmental, consumer, and other non-governmental organizations in 65 countries, submitted comments informing USGBC that PVC is a potential POP, which should be considered within the LEED system. (February 12, 2004)
- Healthy Building Network TSAC Comments - January, 2004
HBN's technical comments to the USGBC's PVC Task Force regarding a PVC avoidance credit.
- Healthy Building Network TSAC Comments - 2000
(3 documents including original, references, and final rebuttal)
HBN's original comments to the USGBC in support of a PVC avoidance credit for green buildings. The original 88 page PDF file makes the case that the PVC life cycle represents a significant hazard to human health and the environment.
Copies of the joint submission by HBN and CMPBS are available for download (PDF):
Health Effects of PVC in Building Materials - Original (November, 2000)
Health Effects of PVC in Building Materials - References (November, 2000)
Final Rebuttal (December, 2000)
- Read the affidavit of the New York State Attorney General's toxicologist (PDF)
For details of the adverse environmental and health effects of vinyl and its precursor, vinyl chloride monomer.
- Read more about NYState's case against vinyl in our newsletter (PDF)
Featuring a Q&A about the lawsuit brought by the vinyl flooring industry against NYState's green building tax credit.
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