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Polyvinyl Chloride, or PVC, is a commonly used plastic that has a number of negative environmental characteristics. As a chlorinated plastic, production and waste processes can lead to the formation of deadly toxic emissions. PVC also contains a range of toxic additives, including metals, plasticizers, and hazardous oils that can further lead to contamination and health impacts.
There are a variety of PVC uses common in today's automobiles. The main automotive applications of PVC are:
Toxic Inputs to PVC
PVC is manufactured from carcinogenic chemicals - ethylene dichloride (EDC) and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) - and often includes toxic additives such as lead, organotins, and phthalates - depending on the final end use for the product. PVC contains these additives to facilitate manufacturing, impart specific properties to the plastic, and/or prolong the use life of the plastic. Due to these toxic inputs, the production, use, and disposal of PVC, especially by incineration, creates toxic pollution.
Some of these additives, like organotins, are added to PVC to stabilize the plastic. An inherently rigid plastic, PVC requires softening agents (technically known as "plasticizers") like phthalates to make it flexible. However, the phthalates are not tightly bound to PVC and they leak from the plastic over time. Automakers have acknowledged that PVC products in interiors cause "fogging" of windshields: the glazing of windshields with a fine layer of phthalates or other plasticizer used in the PVC. Of concern to occupants of the vehicles is exposure to phthalates. A phthalate commonly used in PVC, di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) is a reproductive toxicant (i.e., damages the reproductive system of animals). The heating of PVC by the sun increases the rate at which DEHP leaks out of the plastic. Research shows that as the temperature of a vehicle's interior rises, the concentration of DEHP in the air also rises.
Toxic Outputs of PVC
Toxic outputs also emerge during the production and disposal of PVC and during vehicle and landfill fires. A main concern with PVC is the formation of chlorinated byproducts during these stages. Dioxins and furans are emitted from PVC manufacturing, are formed when PVC is burned in incinerators, and will form during accidental fires of PVC products, including auto fires and landfill fires. PVC facilitates dioxin formation because it contributes chlorine, one of the necessary conditions for dioxin formation. The other conditions are heat, organic matter (carbon), and catalysts. Auto fires are common, with almost 400,000 auto fires reported annually in the U.S. Dioxins and furans are persistent, bioaccumulative, and very toxic chemicals that are targeted for elimination under the international treaty, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).
Alternatives are available for automotive uses of PVC, and the Clean Car Campaign urges automakers to switch to these less toxic alternatives as quickly as possible.
For more information on the health hazards and disposal problems associated with PVC see the Center for Health, Environment and Justice's recent report PVC: The Poison Plastic, Health Hazards and the Looming Waste Crisis or visit BESAFE 's PVC action web site.
For more information on PVC and other plastics in the auto sector see the Ecology Center's 2006 Automotive Plastics Report Card.
Other PVC Resources
End of Life Vehicles: A Threat to the Environment: The Need to Ban the Use of PVC (Vinyl) Plastic in Cars
Axel Singhofen (December 1997)
PVC - The Poison Plastic (Greenpeace web page)
Green Paper on Environmental issues of PVC
European Commission, (July 2000)
Ecology Center Comments on EU PVC Green Paper (November 30, 2000)
A Review of Restrictions and PVC-free Policies Worldwide
Greenpeace International, August, 2001
email: info@cleancarcampaign.org