senso-rustic-ss-chien-1620x600Question:

I work as a Marketing Consultant with a global vinyl flooring company headquartered in France. I help create informational lunch and learn presentations for Architects and Designers and will soon be launching a Canadian LinkedIn site that will provide useful information to the A&D community. Typically our presenters are asked questions re:phthalates by certain Architects and Designers. They read phthalate articles such as the attached summary from Wikipedia. The company, Gerflor Canada offers phthalate-free flooring for hospitals and floors produced with approved phthalates. All products are 100% Reach compliant and low emitting. Gerflor’s Phthalate-free products are produced with bio-based plasticizers. How would you answer an architect who is concerned by what he has read concerning phthalates? We can steer him or her to phthalate-free vinyls. But how can we arm an architect who prefers to specify a product that contains approved phthalates? We need to provide information that helps him justify his decision to his client from a health and well being perspective. Your insights and experience would be very helpful to me.

Thank you, John

Answers:

Dr. Brecher’s Answer

In response to your question…

People who are concerned about the safety of phthalates – or any substance – in the products they buy can check on how the chemical has been evaluated for safety. The European REACH program is perhaps the most comprehensive legislation in the world governing the production and use of chemicals and can place restrictions on chemicals that have been determined to have the potential to harm health or the environment.   Although your question didn’t mention specific phthalates, at least two used in vinyl flooring – DINP and DIDP – were recently re-evalutated by the European Commission:

“

[In] January 2014, the European Commission published its conclusions regarding the re-evaluation of the restrictions on DINP and DIDP indicating that “no unacceptable risk has been characterised for the uses of DINP and DIDP in articles other than toys and childcare articles which can be placed in the mouth”. The ECHA report covered an assessment of potential exposure to DINP and DIDP from all sources, including indoor air and dust, food, clothing, vinyl flooring, vehicle interiors and other sources.”

Source:  http://www.plasticisers.org/en_GB/regulation/reach

Although all phthalates share a common chemical “backbone,” they have different biological, chemical and physical properties.  It is for this reason that some phthalates have been restricted, while others have not.

Clear skies,

Ron