Do you live in a home with vinyl or fake wood flooring? If not, chances are you know someone who does.
What you might not have known is that
vinyl flooring is horrifically toxic and dangerous - both for us and for the Earth.Sign the petition to demand the U.S. government implement stricter regulations to protect consumers from toxic vinyl products!To make vinyl flooring, companies use PVC, or a type of plastic made using vinyl chloride. Vinyl chloride is also the toxic chemical that was at the center of the pollution scandal in East Palestine, Ohio following a train derailment.
This type of fake-wood flooring is incredibly popular because it's cheap and readily available. But the dangers it poses are not worth the risks.
PVC flooring is created using processes that involve dangerous chemicals including lead and mercury, which in turn leads to harmful conditions for workers who are exposed. Research has linked these production facilities to laborers developing cancer, respiratory illnesses, and more - and even to explosions in the workplace.
Once the products are installed in our homes, they poison us, too. It turns out the vinyl's plasticizers can actually slough off the floor and become part of household dust.
Then it finds its way into our bodies, both through the air we breathe and absorption directly into bare feet.When we're done with our laminate flooring, the toxic dangers continue. Once disposed of, these PVC products pollute the environment through leaching chemicals, contaminating the air when they're burned, and soil and water when they're dumped into landfills.
But the strangest part is, we don't need to keep exposing ourselves, children, families, the environment, and workers to these hazards. Plenty of safe, sustainable alternatives exist to PVC flooring. So why is the government allowing this to continue?
PVC vinyl flooring is toxic and poisonous from the moment it is produced, to the moment it is disposed of. One of the most important roles of government is to keep us safe from these types of hazards. The U.S. government must step in and regulate this industry, now!