We want the public to know all the facts about PVC. Whenever the media has questions about the extensive safety record or hundreds of uses of this versatile plastic, we’re eager to supply science-based answers. Unfortunately, we sometimes come across reporters who ask for our input on their stories only to use it selectively to bolster the ideological narrative they want to sell to their readers.
Case in point: GRIST reporter Joseph Winters asked our colleagues at the Vinyl Institute for information about the safety of vinyl chloride (VCM), a chemical used to manufacture PVC, for a recent story he wrote about the EPA’s upcoming review of VCM.
Specifically, Winters asked the Institute to address the claim that “vinyl chloride producers sought to suppress/downplay information about the health and environmental risks of vinyl chloride during the 1970s and onward.”
A long safety record
The Vinyl Institute happily explained why that criticism is misguided. They noted, for instance, that the industry devised an innovative technique in the 1970s to remove residual vinyl chloride from PVC products, further reducing consumer exposure to the chemical.
Manufacturers also began implementing a production process that all but eliminated worker exposure to VCM. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) agrees. This technological development “greatly reduced atmospheric releases of VCM and almost completely eliminated worker exposures,” the agency explained in 1997.
Winters also learned that the US PVC industry has decreased total annual emissions of vinyl chloride by 74 percent while doubling its production volume over the last three decades. The Vinyl Institute recently honored 13 production facilities with its Environmental Excellence Award for their outstanding performance under the EPA’s strict emissions standards for air pollutants.
The Biden Administration has also recognized the industry’s exemplary performance record. In November 2022, the Department of Labor publicly commended the Vinyl Institute for creating programs that “take safety and health seriously.”
Activism masquerading as journalism
How much of this information did Winters include in history? None of it. Instead, the GRIST piece briefly quoted a statement that was already publicly available:
Ned Monroe, president and CEO of an industry trade group called the Vinyl Institute, said in a statement that his organization is “fully prepared to work with the EPA” during its vinyl chloride assessment, expressing confidence that the chemical will continue to be produced. “We believe this risk evaluation will further assure that the production of vinyl chloride and use of PVC products are safe,” he said.
Winters spent the rest of the piece amplifying misinformation about PVC from activist groups like Beyond Plastics, which we have refuted multiple times in just the last year.
Journalists have an obligation to report the whole story. Their job is to inform, not propagandize, the public. Winters paid lip service to this responsibility by including a single comment from the Vinyl Institute, but his gesture was clearly just for show. That’s a shame, because his readers walked away from his article needlessly alarmed about a low-risk chemical that actually makes their lives better.