PVC is BAD, I mean, seriously people.

Everytime I open up an issue of eco-structure magazine or Environmental Design + Construction I find advertisements for vinyl flooring and I think to myself "How the heck can this crud be in an environmentally centered construction magazine?" Then I wonder if I am taking crazy pills.

Well, I appear to not be the only one flummoxed by this happening. Recently Healthy Building News has published a finding that soon after the USGBC has listed PVC as an unhealthy building material the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board has discovered that a deadly 2004 factory explosion occurred because of released vinyl chloride gas.

There have been movies and tons of studies about how vinyl products have a very deadly and poisonous birthing process but it hasn't been until recently that concerns for material production and environmental impacts of such being a marketing strategy that resulted in the proper attention being paid.

One can hope that scrutiny directly caused by green building practices and environmental concerns can continue to help create safer jobs and communities around factories, if only through indirect means.

Did anyone else find that last sentence a little awful tasting in the mouth? It does seem a little hard to swallow that all of a sudden safety and health concerns are being brought to light. Perhaps it is only the power of marketing that can actually sway manufacturing and production practices and standards. Something to ponder next time you pull up to a red light in your Hummer watching the kids on the sidewalk waiting for the bus choking on your fumes.