Blue Vinyl Reponse

I found the movie "Blue Vinyl" very inspiring, as Judith Helfand addressed a large, and perhaps widely uknown, environmental issue. The film was informative, extremely funny (her father was great), and generally very well put together. Judith really did an excellent job of following each and every lead she found, and the people she interviewed were fascinating, especially the Venetian scientist and Bill, the lawyer with an enormous archive of information relevant to PCV and vinyl. I am greatly looking forward to meeting Judith, as I anticipate she will be a very engaging, open person.

After learning about the dangers of PVC and vinyl, however, I would like to know if any possible alternatives are being investigated for a product that is used worldwide in virtually everything. Judith seemed to explore many other types of exterior siding to use on her house, and in the end she could not find one that was not extremely expensive. It is great that Judith could afford to order special wood and have it shipped to her parent's home, but, as she freely admits, most people could not. As far as prioritizing the out-phasing of vinyl, I personally put it fairly low on the list, even behind things like the remediation of soil in residential areas contaminated by lead. Until alternatives are researched and developed, I do not think it is really even worth trying to eliminate the use of such a valuable product that itself is not harmful to humans. The production of vinyl is another story altogether, as it is clearly killing people in horrible ways. But why can regulations concerning factory conditions and environmental contamination of the lands surrounding the production facilities not be made stricter? The disposal of used vinyl is also a huge problem from an environmental standpoint, but there are external costs for everything, and virtually nothing can be produced without some sort of negative impact on something else. The bottom line for me is this: it is important that we begin to move away from vinyl, but not without a cost effective alternative in place, and its out-phasing should not take precedence over the plethora of other dangerous environmental issues that have the potential to harm many more people aside from those living near and working inside a few large factories.