Vinyl Chloride

During the manufacturing process, these industries used vinyl chloride:

*building and construction
*automotive businesses
*industrial supplies and supplies for the home
*medical equipment
*rubber, paper, and glass businesses

To produce plastic products, polyvinyl chloride is used. Packaging materials, pipes, wire coating and cable coating are just examples that contain PVC.

During the 1950s and 60s, hairsprays and spray paints contained vinyl chloride and until 1974, aerosol spray propellants contained vinyl chloride.

In the year 1999, the U.S. Department Agency found vinyl chloride in the air in Mossville, Louisiana. There was 100 times the legal amount in parts of the environment. Vinyl chloride is mainly found near landfills, processing plants and harmful wastes sites.

People working in the hair industry are in contact with vinyl chloride all day because it is an ingredient in hairspray bottles. Those working to produce aerosol spray propellants are exposed to higher amounts of it. People working in industries that produce vinyl chloride will have higher exposure to its vapors.

Cancers such as liver, brain or lung cancer can be caused from breathing in vapors of vinyl chloride. It is also a factor of cancers of the blood. With high levels of vinyl chloride in the air, a person's chances of developing cancer significantly increase.

Vinyl chloride is a vascular toxin. It causes a tumor called angiosarcoma. The tumor grows very quickly and breathing these vapors is harmful to the body. Upon reaching the liver, it changes substances.

These new substances slowly travel through your blood, passes through your kidneys and it leaves through your urine. These new substances are more dangerous then vinyl chloride because your body will have a bad reaction with how your body will react to those chemicals.

High level of vinyl chloride will cause bone deterioration called acroosteolysis. Your hands will have problems with blood flow, which will lead to this conditions acroosteolysis. Your fingers will become numb and shortly after ulcers will appear. This will eventually lead to disfigurement due to bone loss.

When making polyvinyl chloride there is dioxins that are released. This causes a concern. These dioxins can cause cancers and other problems with your immune system and reproductive system. The closer a person lives to a PVC area, the higher level of dioxins was found.

Contact of vinyl chloride though the air is primarily how you can be exposed. However, if it is exposed to the eyes or skin, you could be at risk. When exposed to vinyl chloride people may experience the following:

*Nerve damage
*Changes of the liver
*Develop immune reaction

It is unsure of what are the lowest levels of vinyl chloride that produce these changes in people.