|
|
|
Questions & Answers about
Vinyl
Make
Comments | Dialog
Index | Resources
|
|
|
|
|
|
What the Critics
of
the Use of Vinyl
Have to Say |
|
|
|
What the Vinyl Industry
Has to Say
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
Critics Response
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This issue of Architectural
Record (just unwrapped this hour) features (in it's Continuing Education
section - where professionals can earn ACTUAL continuing ed credits for
answering questions in the magazine) an installment on "Vinyl
By Design - acheiving a successful building envelope with vinyl" (this
follows another article on the wonder and virtues of recycled plastics)
The outrage First of all that, once more, the section masquerading as
continuing education focuses, for the SECOND time this year, on vinyl
is ridiculous. This time, it cannot go unchallenged. I suppose more than
one rebuttal would be good though, so anyone wanting to challenge this
aside from me... go to it!
Makes me ashamed of professionals at the magazine that allow this --Or
perhaps that's too judgmental, perhaps they, too, are simply ignorant?
|
|
|
|
Does PVC degrade hazardously,
is it toxic when it burns or any other time, specifically? Is the problem
in the manufacture, handling, storage, and unavoidable misuse of the stuff?
Are the component chemicals, solvents, etc. the problem? How does dioxin
enter the picture?
|
|
I Need it in 25
Words or Less
|
|
|
|
|
|
The production of vinyl
creates toxic materials which are known carcinogens. Do you know what
you get when you burn vinyl? DIOXIN,
that is what you get. Do you know that children crawling around on warm
and friendly vinyl floor are ingesting dioxin and other compounds at an
alarming rate? Dioxin concentrates in mother's milk and is passed on to
children. It is one of the most persistent chemical compounds. The publishers
of Architectural Record might want to talk to Greenpeace and other groups
regarding the safety of vinyl compounds before taking industry money to
promote yet another means of killing consumers and lining the pockets
of corporations with profits. http://www.greenpeace.org/~toxics/.
http://www.cehca.org/
Is PVC recyclable? When a flooring contractor ends up with 10 or 12 yards
of scraps can they send that material to a facility which will use it
to make new products? The plumbing contractors using pvc and cpvc for
water supplies ask the same question. What are they to do with their materials?
The vinyl institute has a
list
of recycling facilities which make it extremely expensive and difficult,
if not impossible.
PVC is cheap. Have you ever asked why? First costs are low, but the big
bill for clean up and disposal is paid by people other than the manufacturers.
Why did so many folks in Lake Charles, Louisiana have to move their homes?
Why have so many ended up with cancer? Cancer Alley is the next Love Canal.
Do you want to be associated with that?
I am part of a concerted effort to educate building professionals, AIA
Members, contractors and building officials, about the dangers of vinyl.
Municipalities are working to create outright bans on PVC. From whom did
we inherit the earth? Not our ancestors. We are in fact borrowing it from
our children. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
Vinyl Industry's Response
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Edison
Electric Institute
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Latest Update: 3/25/02
adpsrmail@aol.com
Copyright© December 1998
|
|
Top
| Home
| About
Us | News
| Events
| Dialog
| Members
| Resource
Guide
|