Dangerous Vinyl Flooring

Researchers say vinyl flooring and sofas with flame retardants can present a health risk to children.

Dangerous vinyl flooring.

Dehp can be found inside homes. If a fire breaks out and the vinyl in your floor catches flame it will begin to emit noxious fumes which will fill the air with harmful toxins including dioxins. Experts say linoleum is a safer alternative than vinyl flooring. The argument goes that since most vinyl floors will end up in a landfill and there are over 8 000 fires per year in us landfills vinyl contributes to overall dioxin levels.

Even though it s popular and easy to install vinyl is probably the worst flooring choice in terms of health sustainability and production. This is true whether a large scale fire breaks out or just a small portion of the floor is burnt by accidentally dropping something. What is the concern about phthalates. Most vinyl flooring contains chemicals called phthalates many of which have been banned from children s products over concerns of negative health effects.

Phthalates are used to soften plastic and vinyl and make them more flexible. A recent study found that most vinyl flooring made from reprocessed plastic contained toxic phthalates lead cadmium brominated flame retardants and other toxic chemicals. Flooring samples sold by five major home improvement stores were tested and of the 65 vinyl flooring tiles tested 58 contained phthalates. With vinyl it has the potential to be released during the manufacturing process and then again if the flooring product is incinerated in a particular temperature range.

In april 2015 a study was released about vinyl flooring and toxic phthalates. 100 of vinyl flooring sold by lumber liquidators contained these dangerous chemicals although other flooring retailers were also selling vinyl flooring with high levels of phthalates. Vinyl flooring is manmade and contains pvc which releases many different phthalates specifically dehp diethyelhexyl phthalate a particularly troubling compound.