There are lots of reasons to dislike PVC, also known as #3 plastic or just "vinyl." Its production uses more mercury than nearly any other industry. When it's made or incinerated it creates dioxins, some of the nastiest of the nasty toxics. It's full of icky, bad-for-you additives like phthalates (that's "thay-lates" if you want to sound knowledgable when arguing with retail clerks) that can leach out. The list goes on...
The creepy thing is, it's everywhere. It's the covering on most waterproof "chewable" baby books. It's in some pacifiers. It's the frame of most new windows and all new "linoleum" floors. It covers three-ring binders and shows up in raingear and shower curtains and some disposable silverware and dozens of other common items. Not to mention tons of packaging.
Frankly, this sounds to me like a stellar case of why sometimes a little regulation is good. You could spend a full time job (and the pay from a part time one) seeking out and getting rid of all the PVC in your life. Not an efficient allocation of resources, in my book. Much better that we collectively decide this is something we don't want in our air, homes, landfills, or kid's bodies.
But in the meantime if you want to find PVC-free alternatives in at least some areas of your life (say, the stuff entering your baby's mouth or your own), or at least not add any more during the holiday season, the good folks at Center for Environmental Health and Justice are here to help with their Pass Up the Poison Plastic guide. The guide explains how to identify PVC and where it often shows up and offers a list of manufacturers of PVC-free versions of key items.
You may not be up for suggestions like "Call the manufacturer's 800 number if you can't tell from the labeling whether the packaging on a product has PVC or not" (though kudos to you if you are. I'm sure it will help get the stuff phased out), but surely anyone with a baby at least wants the list of safe pacifiers.
Picture of PVC pipes by Groupe Aménagement Numérique des Territoires, via Flickr.
