That new plastic shower curtain smell....Can it harm us?
We’ve all experienced this. Take a plastic shower curtain fresh out of its packaging and stand back from the bad smell. Turns out that there are over 100 chemicals off- gassing from that plastic...yikes! It’s no wonder it can cause nausea and headaches for some people. These chemicals are VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) like toluene or xylene and are very serious indoor air pollutants. Tests have found these chemicals to be at levels that were 16 times higher than what’s recommended in indoor air quality guidelines.* Vinyl shower curtains can also contain lots of other nasty chemicals like lead, mercury, cadmium , phthalates ( these can interfere with hormone production), and triclosan ( see One Ingredient we Avoid and Why section for that wonderful little additive).
The air we breathe enters our bloodstream the same as if we’d eaten or drank it. Let’s face it...this is a product that’s past it’s time!
What to do?
Look for non PVC shower curtains...that’s pretty obvious. Organic cotton ones are best if you can find them. Also Try IKEA. They’ve been selling alternatives to PVC shower curtains since the 90’s.
Kudos to them!
* U.S Green Building Counsel and Washington States indoor air-quality program.
