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News Release
Center for Health, Environment and Justice
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
November 24, 2008
CONTACT:
Mike Schade, CHEJ
212.964.3680
mike@chej.org
New Consumer Health Guide – “Pass Up the Poison Plastic, The PVC-Free Guide for Your Family & Home” Released Just in Time for the Holiday Shopping Season
Guide Features Safer Alternatives to Hundreds of Toxic PVC Baby Products, Toys, & Other Products for Children & the Home
(Falls Church, VA) A new guide released today just in time for the holiday shopping season empowers parents and consumers worried about toxic chemicals in toys, baby products, and the home to find safer products. Pass Up the Poison Plastic – the PVC-Free Guide for Your Family & Home lists the most common consumer products made out of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic and safer PVC-free products. PVC, also known as vinyl, is the worst plastic for our health and environment, releasing dangerous chemicals that can cause cancer from manufacture to disposal. The Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ), who coordinates a national campaign to phase out PVC, released the new guide. It can be downloaded for free at www.besafenet.com/pvc
Pass Up the Poison Plastic features a listing of PVC-free products in no less than eighty product categories including:
- Baby care products;
- Building materials;
- Children’s toys;
- Electronics;
- School and office supplies; and more!
It also includes the top ten reasons for purchasing PVC-free products, quick tips for avoiding PVC, a listing of common household products that may contain PVC, information about other toxic plastics to avoid, a cheat sheet to common plastic acronyms, information on simple actions consumers can take for safer products and a healthier environment, and more.
“We need to take personal responsibility for the health and environmental impacts of the products we purchase,” said Mike Schade, co-author of the guide and PVC Campaign Coordinator for the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. “We’ve created this new guide to empower consumers to find safer solutions to PVC, the most toxic plastic for our health and environment. We can help build consumer consciousness and demand for safer, healthier products by purchasing PVC-free products.”
PVC products often contain dangerous toxic additives such as phthalates, lead, and organotins, which can leach out and pose avoidable dangers to consumers. Many toxic toys recalled over the past few years were made out of PVC. Approximately 90% of all phthalates are used to soften PVC products. In the summer of 2008, Congress enacted legislation to ban phthalates in children’s toys, but they are still allowed in all other PVC products in the home, despite their known hazards. A number of studies have identified correlations between phthalates in PVC products and asthma in children and adults.
A number of major retailers, including Target, Sears Holdings, Wal-Mart, JCPenneys, and IKEA have enacted major policies to reduce or phase out PVC products and/or packaging.
CHEJ mentors a movement building healthier communities by empowering people to prevent harm caused by chemical and toxic threats. CHEJ works with communities to empower groups by providing the tools, direction, and encouragement they need to advocate for human health, to prevent harm and to work towards environmental integrity. Following her successful effort to prevent further harm for families living in contaminated Love Canal, Lois Gibbs founded CHEJ in 1981 to continue the journey. To date, CHEJ has assisted over 10,000 groups nationwide.
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ATTENTION REPORTERS: To download the new guide released today, visit www.besafenet.com/pvc
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