|
By Ira Karen Apanay, Senior Reporter
Shower curtains commonly used in homes, gyms,
hospitals, hotels and resorts may not be safe for your health.
This after the United States-based Center for
Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ) published a laboratory test
report revealing that shower curtains made of polyvinyl chloride
(PVC) contain many harmful chemicals.
Because of this, health and environmental
advocates in the Philippines expressed concern over the presence of
more than 100 chemicals that are released into the air from certain
types of shower curtains.
Members of the waste and pollution watchdog
EcoWaste Coalition on Friday launched the US report “Volatile
Vinyl: The New Shower Curtain’s Chemical Smell.” It was based on
tests conducted on PVC shower curtains bought from popular US retail
shops and used as laboratory samples.
EcoWaste said, quoting the report, that PVC
shower curtains tested positive for chemicals, including volatile
organic compounds, phthalates and organotins, which are known to
cause damage to the liver and central nervous, respiratory, and
reproductive systems.
Some of these chemicals can cause cancer in
animals, while some are suspected or known to cause cancer in
humans. These chemicals make up that “new shower curtain smell”
or that strong chemical odor unique to PVC shower curtains, EcoWaste
explained.
Action vs. PVC curtains urged
Sonia Mendoza of the Mother Earth Foundation
said the report should stir health, environmental and trade
officials, as well as the House of Representatives and the Senate to
regulate consumer products that contribute to indoor air pollution,
and cause harm to health and the environment.
Mendoza stressed that indoor air pollution is a
public health concern that requires preventive and precautionary
actions to protect Filipino families, especially children.
The World Health Organization, US Environmental
Protection Authority, American Lung Association and numerous other
public health and environmental agencies and organizations consider
indoor air pollution a major risk to human health.
Mendoza also said, quoting Dr. David Carpenter
of the Institute for Health and the Environment, University at
Albany, State University of New York, that “the brain is a major
target for volatile organic compounds, causing everything from
headache and loss of concentration, to learning disabilities in
children whose mothers were exposed before their birth, as shown in
a recent Canadian study.
EcoWaste Coalition also said the report should
push the National Solid Waste Management Commission, Department of
Trade and Industry and other agencies to enforce the phase out of
non-environmentally acceptable products and packaging materials in
the market as directed by Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid
Waste Management Act.
The “Volatile Vinyl” report also recommends
steps that governments, manufacturers, retailers and consumers can
do to safeguard public health and the environment, like an immediate
phase-out of PVC in shower curtains, recalling PVC shower curtains
from store shelves, labeling of material content of shower curtains,
rejecting products that are not properly labeled, and choosing
PVC-free alternatives.
The report, co-authored by Stephen Lester,
Michael Schade and Caitlin Weigand of CHEJ, was released globally on
June 12 in 17 states in the US and in Bulgaria, Canada, India,
Lebanon, Philippines, South Africa and the United Kingdom
|
