For Children's Health, Push Schools to Go PVC-Free

Planet Green has written before about children and PVC (polyvinyl chloride, a ubiquitous material in everything from pipes to rubber ducks): children exposed to PVC flooring and wall coverings in nurseries, bedrooms, and other rooms have an 89 percent higher risk of developing bronchial obstruction than kids who pitter-pattered in PVC-free homes.

Dioxins—chemicals contained in PVC products and spewed from factories where it is manufactured—cause chronic health problems including cancer, neurological damage, endometriosis, neurological damage, and birth defects, as well as liver and kidney damage.

So with that in mind, we shouldn't need more motivation to keep our kids (and ourselves) away from the harmful stuff. Yet, it's still everywhere, including schools—and while you can detox your home, it seems almost a wasted effort if kids are just going to spend most of their days in toxic environments.

The Center for Health, Environment & Justice has a handy fact sheet [PDF] providing more details on why schools should go PVC-free, including its presence in everything from flooring to cleaning materials, and the connection between PVC and asthma—and absenteeism, which interferes with the opportunity to learn. They finish off with how-to tips for getting PVC out of schools.

Schools should be a (healthy) place for learning—to get more involved, there are plenty of tips around for getting schools to go green.