Is Vinyl Bad For Your Health

While vinyl flooring continues to grow in popularity there are several serious environmental concerns about this resilient surface material.

Is vinyl bad for your health.

Your vinyl siding is generally safe as long as you don t spend time licking it or touching it. Post consumer pvc is difficult to recycle and when compared to the recycling efforts of other plastics vinyl is doing a poor job. A recent study found that most vinyl flooring made from reprocessed plastic contained toxic phthalates lead cadmium brominated flame retardants and other toxic chemicals. Like most plastics pvc can mess with your child s developing hormone system and more.

Experts say linoleum is a safer. There are no federal laws or rules prohibiting the group of chemicals known as phthalates from vinyl flooring. The studies that did find negative effects of. Pvc of which vinyl tiles are made makes it very dangerous.

When pvc is incinerated it produces dioxin. From manufacture through installation and use and even after it s life cycle is over vinyl has the potential to cause harm to both the broad and your environment in many ways. This gas is highly poisonous and has the capability of causing damage to your respiratory system and can also cause skin burns. Unfortunately building regulations have changed a lot in the past fifty years and vinyl from the 1960s can often contain traces of substances that we now know to be harmful to human health.

It can also enter through your skin and in some cases you could breathe lead into your lungs. These building materials are can smolder and consequently give off a poisonous gas in the name of hydrogen chloride. When kids play on the floor they are exposed just as much as if it s in the toys said tony iallonardo spokesman for safer chemicals healthy families. Pvc plastic also known as vinyl is one of the worst plastics and you definitely want to keep your child from inhaling fumes from it or ingesting small particles in his food or water.

You can get lead in your body if you drink liquid that contains lead such as water that has passed through lead pipes. This is the biggest risk that comes from choosing vinyl flooring with a high recycled content you don t know exactly what is in your floor tiles. It s a major cause of exposure for children.