Environmental Impacts of Polyvinyl Chloride

This report was prepared by the author and does not represent the opinions of The University of Oregon or any of its affiliates. p. 53 © Basel Action Network. PVC coated wire waste sorted and burned by villagers in Guiyu, China. Cancer causing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and dioxins will result from burning wires made from PVC and brominated flame retardants. p. 77 © Bryce lankard/Greenpeace 1996. Cows graze outside PVC manufacturing facility in Giesmar, Louisiana. Dioxin emissions to the environment move up the food chain. Fatty foods such as meat and dairy products are the primary source of dioxin exposure to most humans. p. 97 © Stone/Greenpeace 200. Lake Charles, Louisiana area children suffer health impacts due to pollution from PVC manufacturing facilities. The Healthy Building acknowledges the following people and organizations for their important contributions to this report. Dr. Joe Thornton's willingness to accept this assignment on short notice and under a short deadline is testament to his ongoing commitment to the related goals of sound science and environmental justice. on the health and policy implications of global chemical pollution and on the molecular evolution of animal endocrine systems. He holds Ph. New Environmental Strategy (MIT Press 2000), which the British scientific journal Nature has called " a landmark book which should be read by anyone wanting to understand the environmental and health dangers of chlorine chemistry. " From the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, Thornton was research analyst and then research coordinator for Greenpeace's U.S. and international toxics campaigns. There, he authored seminal reports and articles on organochlorines, dioxin, breast cancer, waste incineration, risk assessment, and the precautionary principle. In 1995, Dr. Thornton joined Columbia University's Earth Institute, where he wrote Pandora's Poison and expanded his research into the basic science of the biological systems that can be damaged by toxic chemicals. He also co-authored the article and American Public Health Association resolution that launched the campaign to eliminate polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products from medical uses due to their central role in dioxin formation in medical waste incinerators. Dr. Thornton has spoken before the U.