In the late 1960's, Dr. John Creech, and Dr. Maurice Johnson, were the first to clearly link and recognize the carcinogenicity of vinyl chloride monomer to humans; workers in the polyvinyl chloride polymerization section of a B.F. Goodrich plant near Louisville, Kentucky, were diagnosed with liver angiosarcoma, a rare disease. Since that time, studies of PVC workers in Australia, Italy, Germany, and the U.K. have all associatied occupational cancers with exposure to vinyl chloride.
The environmentalist group Greenpeace has advocated the global phase-out of PVC because dioxin is produced as a byproduct of vinyl chloride manufacture.
Links to companies and organizations involved in related issues:
- The Vinyl Institute (http://www.vinylinfo.org/index.html)
- Vinyl.org (Vinyl Council of Canada) (http://www.vinyl.org)
- The European PVC Portal (European Council of Vinyl Manufacturers) (http://www.ecvm.org)
- Uni-Bell PVC Pipe Association (http://www.uni-bell.org)
- Hydro PVC (http://www.hydropolymers.com/en/products/pvc/index.html)
- Health impacts of PVC and guides to alternatives - Healthy Building Network (http://www.healthybuilding.net/)