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Current Newsletter:
Transparency: There's an App for That (February 18, 2010)
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Resources
On HBN's PVC Resources page, you'll find "must-read" documents, groundbreaking reports, and critical data.
General
- "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.
- Sorting Out
the Vinyls: When is "Vinyl" Not PVC? This fact
sheet distinguishes the other vinyls (PVA, PVB and EVA) from polyvinyl
chloride
- Definitions
Key words and phrases related to PVC: dioxin, life cycle, phthalates, endocrine disrupting, body burden, persistent, bioaccumulative, organochlorines.
Scientific Reports
- 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 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 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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