[ad_1]
This text was written by Burgess Brown. Wholesome Supplies Lab is a design analysis lab at Parsons College of Design with a mission to put well being on the heart of each design resolution. HML is altering the way forward for the constructed surroundings by creating assets for designers, architects, lecturers, and college students to make more healthy locations for all individuals to stay. Take a look at their podcast, Hint Materials.
That is Half I of a three-part sequence on the hazards of vinyl flooring. In Half II we’ll discover the lengthy historical past of employee endangerment by the vinyl business and the ways in which legacy continues in China in the present day.
For those who’ve stayed in a just lately renovated AirBnB, stumbled upon quickly-flipped properties on Zillow, or tuned into the DIY nook of YouTube within the final couple of years, you’ll acknowledge a typical inside design development: imitation wooden or stone flooring branded as “Luxurious Vinyl Tile.” These flooring are in every single place and for good motive. LVT is reasonably priced, sturdy, simple to take care of and fast to put in — a DIYer’s dream! But it surely’s not simply DIYers which have hopped on the LVT practice —huge numbers of high-end lodges, faculties, reasonably priced housing models and workplace buildings have plasticized their flooring.
Behind the slick rebrand and influencers’ stamp of approval, LVT producers are hiding a “soiled local weather secret,” in accordance with a latest report from the Middle for Environmental Well being, Materials Analysis L3C, and Autocase Financial Advisory.
What’s in a Identify?
Picture generated by Architizer utilizing Midjourney
Vinyl flooring has been round in some type for the reason that plastics revolution of the early twentieth century. It turned a residential inside staple through the postwar housing growth. Sheet vinyl was a fast and reasonably priced choice for builders racing to deal with a rising inhabitants. At the moment’s vinyl can look fairly totally different, however at its core, it’s nonetheless a petrochemical product made with chemical compounds of great well being and local weather concern. The addition of the luxurious classification in vinyl branding is a latest advertising time period, and it’s hoodwinking hordes of purchasers. It usually designates vinyl tiles or panels (LVT or LVP) which might be made to mimic the look of wooden, stone or ceramic.
The recognition of those tiles and panels, notably of the free lay selection, have exploded thanks to a different growth interval: pandemic renovations. In 2021, LVT gross sales grew by a whopping 37.4%. By 2022, vinyl flooring made in China alone turned the most typical flooring offered in the US, accounting for over one- quarter of all flooring offered within the U.S. In line with the report from Middle for Environmental Well being, there are severe points with lack of transparency and accuracy across the human and environmental toll of the LVT growth.
A Soiled Local weather Secret
Picture generated by Architizer utilizing Midjourney
CEH’s report, titled “Flooring’s Soiled Local weather Secret”, uncovers points with the accuracy of reported carbon emissions by producers of LVT and a scarcity of transparency round poisonous chemical compounds utilized in manufacturing of vinyl flooring. Listed here are the 4 key findings from the report:
1. Carbon Emissions from producing PVC are underestimated by between 8% and 180% in Producer Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs).
In line with the report, producer EPDs use outdated information and depend on carbon emission estimates from a single U.S. based mostly manufacturing plant that doesn’t precisely replicate world emissions.
2. Staff all alongside the provision chain, together with frontline and fenceline communities within the U.S. and overseas are endangered by publicity to hazardous chemical compounds used to make LVT; Vinyl flooring producers use vital portions of extremely poisonous chemical compounds like PFAS and mercury to provide PVC.
PFAS, Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances also referred to as “perpetually chemical compounds,” are poisonous to people at extraordinarily low ranges of publicity. The manufacturing of PFAS chemical compounds releases greenhouse gasses that degrade the ozone layer whereas mercury, additionally utilized in PVC manufacturing, produces local weather warming greenhouse fuel emissions. You could have seen latest protection of a report from the U.S. Geological Survey that discovered PFAS in practically half of the faucet water within the U.S.
3. Asbestos is used to provide chlorine to make PVC flooring in the US – importing asbestos for PVC manufacturing represents the final remaining authorized use of this poisonous mineral fiber.
Sure, you learn that proper: asbestos. The U.S. imports roughly 373 metric tons of asbestos from mines in Russia and Brazil every year particularly to gas the manufacturing of PVC. There may be threat of publicity and launch into the surroundings in any respect levels of this world provide chain. The EPA, which has partially restricted asbestos use within the U.S., proposed a ban on asbestos in 2022 that has been met with fierce opposition from the chemical business.
4. Elevated use of coal has resulted in increased carbon dioxide emissions as a result of US producers have shifted the vast majority of vinyl flooring manufacturing to China.
U.S. vinyl flooring producers have shifted the majority of manufacturing to China the place coal is used to provide PVC as an alternative of pure fuel, which is used within the U.S. The usage of coal as a feedstock releases huge quantities of carbon dioxide into the environment.
So, in accordance with the CEH report, the LVT growth is inflicting an infinite improve in carbon emissions and is exposing employees, fenceline communities and residents to extraordinarily poisonous chemical compounds. All of that is below or mis-reported by vinyl producers. The place does this go away architects, designers, and DIYers selecting flooring? We’ve got to ask what’s the true value of this “cheap” product and why would we ever need to use this product? Fortuitously, there are many lovely, wholesome, and reasonably priced alternate options to LVT.
More healthy, Inexpensive Options
Picture generated by Architizer utilizing Midjourney
When selecting flooring supplies, search for supplies containing benign, regenerative components and use non-toxic finishes. Listed here are some choices to specify as an alternative of vinyl:
- Linoleum (tiles, planks, and poured) is made primarily from vegetation—linseed oil from the flax plant and wooden flour from timber. Different components are added to make sure sturdiness.
- Cork comes from the bark of the Cork Oak tree, which is harvested and regenerates with out injuring the tree.
- Hempwood is a plant-based choice that helps carbon sequestration by means of rising hemp. Its sturdiness is equal to hardwood.
- Stable hardwood may be completed utilizing merchandise freed from poisonous solvents, permitting it to breathe and assist regulate the inside local weather and enhance indoor air high quality.
- Engineered hardwood made with soy-based binders is commonly extra reasonably priced than a strong wooden choice.
- Porcelain tile is benign and totally vitrified, making it extremely sturdy and chemical-resistant.
- Reclaimed flooring, when created from wholesome supplies and located domestically, saves supplies that may find yourself in landfills and reduces carbon emissions and well being impacts.
For extra in-depth steerage on more healthy flooring, try the Wholesome Supplies Lab flooring supplies assortment. You’ll discover detailed spec steerage and an inventory of rigorously vetted flooring merchandise which were holistically evaluated by our group for his or her content material and efficiency.
That is Half I of a three-part sequence on the hazards of vinyl flooring. In Half II we’ll discover the lengthy historical past of employee endangerment by the vinyl business and the ways in which legacy continues in China in the present day.
[ad_2]
Source link
