From: Greenpeace via Jym Dyer <jym@mica.berkeley.edu>
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive,alt.activism,talk.environment,alt.save.the.earth
Subject: EDITORIAL: Don't Buy PVC
Followup-To: talk.environment,alt.save.the.earth
Date: 8 Jan 1993 01:01:10 GMT
Organization: The Naughty Peahen Party Line
NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
Keywords: environment

[The holiday angle is out-of-date, of course.  --Jym]

[Greenpeace Press Release from Greenbase -- Redistribute Freely]

   GREENPEACE URGES SHOPPERS TO HAVE A PVC-FREE CHRISTMAS 
   
LONDON December 17th, 1992 (GP) -- Greenpeace issued an alert
today to all shoppers this Christmas to ensure their gifts are
free of the poisonous PVC.  The alert comes as the international
skin and hair care chain 'The Body Shop' announced it would no
longer order any products or packaging containing PVC from 1993.
 
'The Body Shop' operates in forty one countries around the world
and estimates that phasing out PVC in gift wrapping alone will
save the use of approximately nineteen tonnes of PVC each year.
 
Scientific evidence is mounting against PVC.  PVC's production
involves the transport of highly explosive materials, the
production of toxic waste and the addition during its
manufacture of up to four thousand other toxic ingredients.
Toxic additives can be released from PVC packaging into food,
into a room which has PVC flooring or into a child's digestive
system if he or she chews a PVC toy.  When PVC plastics are
destroyed by incineration, they release dioxins.  In the US,
government scientists have found evidence which suggests that
even at background levels, dioxins may have reproductive,
behavioural and immuno-suppressive effects.
 
The Body Shop opted for its PVC-free policy after lengthy
consultations with industry and with Greenpeace.  "If we could
be reassured that all PVC incinerated anywhere in the world
would not contribute to the formation of dioxins and excessive
hydrogen chloride emissions, we might be more sympathetic to
its continued use as a packaging material," said David Wheeler,
General Manager in charge of Environment, Health and Safety.
"But since incineration practices vary around the world we
prefer to apply the precautionary principle in this case."
 
The campaign against PVC is gathering pace across Europe.
In Germany the cities of Berlin and Bielefeld have declared
themselves PVC free.  In Austria, a number of cities and federal
states including Tyrol, Vienna and Salzburg have banned the use
of PVC in public construction.  Early next year a court hearing
will re-open in Vienna at which Austrian PVC companies, all
subsidiaries of leading European Chemical multinationals are
suing Greenpeace for "malicious and unfactual attacks on PVC".
The law suit was brought as a result of a Greenpeace billboard
and advertising campaign depicting PVC as an environmental
poison.
 
"It is high time that the PVC industry admits it is a major
source of environmental pollution," said Lisa Finaldi of
Greenpeace International. "Non-chlorinated alternatives exist
for all PVC products.  We demand an immediate phase out of
the PVC industry."
Xref: sparky misc.activism.progressive:9770 alt.activism:20026 alt.politics.homosexuality:8936