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I have vinyl siding on my house. Should I be in fear for my
health?
The vinyl siding on your home is probably harmless under normal circumstances. A situation you may need to worry about is the event of a house fire. One chemical in vinyl siding-polyvinyl chloride, or PVC-is particularly toxic when it burns. It can release deadly gases like hydrogen chloride long before it ignites, creating a significant threat to anyone in the home, rescue personnel and neighbors. Burnt PVC also leaves behind a highly-toxic carcinogen known as dioxin.
PVC is getting a lot of attention lately thanks to a film by Judith Helfand and Daniel Gold called "Blue Vinyl" that documents Judith's attempts to get her parents to remove their vinyl siding. Her campaign was inspired not so much because of any immediate threats to her parents' health (aside from the above-mentioned fire hazard). Rather, she hoped to use their example to draw attention to PVC's "toxic lifecycle."
Manufacturing PVC requires the use of many hazardous chemicals, and also produces a number of toxic byproducts such as dioxin and PCBs. In the past, workers exposed to these chemicals have become gravely ill, and some have even died. Even today, the PVC manufacturing process poses some risk.
In addition to the manufacturing process, PVC poses a threat to workers during fabrication. Fabrication is the process through which vinyl is molded into an actual consumer product like vinyl siding, flooring, electrical insulation, medical equipment or even toys. During fabrication, PVC is often mixed with hazardous stabilizing agents like lead or cadmium and with "softeners" like phthalates. All these chemicals can cause serious health problems for the working people who must handle them.
The PVC in most finished consumer products does not pose any particular health risks if used properly. In some instances the chemicals added to PVCs, like the softener phthalates, could possibly lead to negative health consequences-particularly in things like soft toys that young children chew on or IV bags that the chemicals could leach out of. But the PVC itself is generally at its safest during the consumer stage of its lifecycle.
The next toxic stage comes into play when trying to dispose of PVC products. PVC is a complicated and expensive material to recycle, so it cannot be mixed with regular plastic in the recycling process. Because of this, most PVC ends up buried in landfills, or even worse, burned in incinerators or open backyard pits.
As mentioned before, burning PVC releases immediate poisons like hydrogen chloride. It also releases long-term health threats, particularly dioxin. Caught in the wind, dioxin from incinerators or open pits can spread throughout our landscape, where it is ingested by fish, cows and other animals. Dioxin then accumulates in animals' bodies, and gets passed on to us when we eat their meat or drink their milk. Dioxin is even found in lower levels in grains, fruits and vegetables. In other words, the food we eat can end up giving us cancer.
Whether or not you should remove the vinyl siding currently on your home is a decision that only you can make. Sustainably-harvested wood, stucco, polypropylene, acrylic and fiber-cement board are just a few of the readily-available alternatives to vinyl siding that are currently on the market. The obvious decision for you and others is never to add new vinyl siding to your home, and to avoid other PVC-containing products as well.
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HOUSE IS YOUR HOUSE.
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