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Toxicity of Vinyl Tiles

Vinyl tiles and other forms of vinyl flooring are popular because this material is easy to install, inexpensive and easy to replace. Fourteen billion pounds of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) flooring is produced each year in North America. But because of the toxins involved in manufacturing, using and disposing of it, it is a health and environmental sustainability disaster, according to the U.S. Green Building Council.

  1. Manufacturing Byproducts

    • The manufacturing of vinyl tiles produces dioxin, vinyl chloride and ethylene dichloride, compounds that can cause cancer, birth defects, neurological damage, developmental problems in children, neurological damage, endometriosis (a painful condition of the uterus that can cause infertility), and damage to the reproductive and immune systems, according to the Healthy Building Network. Dioxin is a bioaccumulative toxin that becomes more toxic as it moves up the food chain.

    Stabilizers

    • To make PVC vinyl into useful products, stabilizers must be added. These include the toxins lead, cadmium and phthalate plasticizers. These toxins are released into the home by leaching, flaking, or outgassing. They are associated with increased risks of asthma, lead poisoning and cancer, and are most damaging to infants and young children, but nonetheless a danger to anyone in the home.

    Fire

    • In a fire, PVC vinyl releases toxic gases, such as hydrogen chloride, even before it ignites. Hydrogen chloride, according to the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Safety and Health Administration, is a corrosive poisonous gas. It can cause burns, permanent respiratory damage and death. Burning PVC vinyl also releases more dioxins and, Greenpeace reports, 100 other toxic compounds.

    Disposal

    • Unlike other plastics, we have no effective way of recycling PVC vinyl tiles; less than 1 percent of post-consumer PVC in the U.S. is recycled. The usual method of disposing of PVC is to burn it. In manufacturing and disposal, PVC is the biggest producer of dioxins in the environment in this country.

    Environmental Justice

    • The highly toxic nature of PVC creates an environmental justice issue. PVC and the substances that are used to make it (the feedstocks vinyl chloride monomer and ethylene dichloride) are produced mainly in poor communities of people of color in Louisiana and Texas, according to Greenpeace.

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