A report by Oakland, Calif.-based Center for Environmental Health says vinyl flooring manufacturers release higher levels of carbon dioxide and toxic pollution than shown in their environmental product declarations (EPDs).

The report, "Flooring's Dirty Climate Secret," also says all PVC flooring sold in the United States — regardless of its origin — was produced using asbestos, mercury and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — toxic chemicals that many people thought have been phased out.

Founded in 1996, CEH is a nonprofit focused on protecting the public from harmful chemicals.

The 52-page report was released to increase awareness of the carbon footprint of materials used in the built environment, point out concerns about material toxicity, and call for better information regarding the environmental impacts of common products, according to CEH CEO Michael Green.

"Despite its low cost and slick marketing, PVC flooring harbors a dirty climate secret: manufacturing this flooring releases enormous quantities of carbon dioxide into the air and requires some of the most toxic substances known to humans," Green said in a news release. "We all stand on the precipice of an irreversible and catastrophic climate emergency. For that reason, it is time to make PVC flooring a relic of the past."

Meanwhile, in the marketplace, luxury vinyl tile (LVT), which looks like wood plank, ceramic or stone, is one of the fastest growing trends in the flooring industry.

LVT is suitable for high, medium and low foot traffic. The products are easy to install, require little maintenance, have extra cushioning to reduce the impact and provide a soft feel, and offer acoustic properties that absorb more noise than tiles, wood and laminate.

The CEH report contains inaccurate and misleading claims about vinyl flooring manufacturing and the product itself, according to Bill Blackstock, president and CEO of the LaGrange, Ga.-based Resilient Floor Covering Institute (RFCI).

Founded in 2007, the trade group represents manufacturers of resilient flooring, primarily made of vinyl, and their suppliers.

Blackstock said in an email: "The report aims for sensationalism over accuracy, and grossly oversimplifies complex technical issues. The fact remains that resilient vinyl flooring remains the go-to choice for consumers, architects, builders, and designers because of the product's demonstrated sustainability benefits and aesthetic appeal."

Under the sustainability tab on the RFCI website, the trade group points to compliance with the volatile organic compound emissions criteria in California as well as third-party certification that rigid core luxury vinyl products have been manufactured to high standards, meet requirements for indoor air quality and rigorous performance, and are free of heavy metals and ortho-phthalates.

RFCI's website also says products with an Affirm certification comply with the NSF/ANSI Standard 332 criteria, which includes environmental, health and wellness, and social impact categories.

The global LVT flooring market is estimated to be worth $10.45 billion in 2022 and is forecast to grow to $21.02 billion by 2028 with a CAGR of 12.4 percent during this period, according to MarketWatch.com.

The scale of this trade is enormous, the CEH report says, with PVC products made in China becoming the most common flooring sold in the United States. PVC flooring from China accounts for more than 25 percent of all flooring sold in the U.S.

"Over the past decade, these shipments to the U.S. increased by 300 percent and now exceed 5.1 billion square feet per year," the report says. "If each square foot were connected end-to-end, shipments that arrived in 2020 would run 1,040,000 miles: that's enough vinyl flooring to connect Earth to its moon, four times over."

Manufacturers like Tarkett, Mohawk Industries, Shaw Industries and Congoleum are major processors, as is Armstrong Flooring Inc., which recently filed for protection from creditors because of supply-chain disruptions and inflationary pressures on transportation, labor and raw materials.

CEH says manufacturing PVC is another problem with an energy intensive process that emits climate-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The carbon and chemical pollution created by manufacturing vinyl flooring impacts the planet and endangers workers and fence-line communities, according to Rachael Wein, director of CEH's Built Environment Program.

"Flooring manufacturers, construction industry professionals, designers, influencers, and everyday individuals all have a role to play in helping to reduce and eventually phase out the use of PVC-based products in our built environment," Wein said.

The report says flooring manufacturers should immediately adopt policies to phase out the use of asbestos, mercury and PFAS chemicals.

Also, the report recommends consumers and building professionals select "healthier" flooring alternatives like ceramic tile or linoleum, which is made from solidified linseed oil, pine resin, ground cork dust, sawdust and mineral fillers like calcium carbonate on a burlap or canvas backing.

The report is based on an extensive investigation of two specific supply chains of Armstrong brand PVC flooring: one that starts at Occidental Petroleum in Ingleside, Texas, and the other at Yibin Haifeng Herui Co. in Yibin, China.

The two manufacturing sites selected are close to the median in terms of production size and their technologies are representative of what is used in their home countries.

Occidental represents the U.S.-based ethylene process to produce PVC and Yibin the carbide process that is predominantly used in China.

The report compiles and evaluates information about inputs and outputs in China and the U.S to come to what CEH says is a more accurate accounting of the carbon emissions generated from PVC flooring from cradle-to-site than the manufacturer's EPDs or life cycle analysis (LCA).

For example, CEH says EPDs don't provide an itemized accounting for claims about carbon dioxide emissions and they don't mention asbestos, mercury or PFAS.

PVC floor manufacturing in the U.S. begins with the ethane-to-ethylene production process. At Occidental Chemical's natural gas-powered plant in Ingleside, brine and ethane are processed and turned into vinyl chloride monomer (VCM). CEH says the brine splitting is accomplished with an asbestos diaphragm membrane.

This VCM then is shipped to Cartagena, Colombia, to be polymerized into PVC. The PVC then is shipped to Pendrickton, N.J., and driven to Armstrong's plant in Lancaster, Pa., where it is combined with several other compounds and materials to create PVC flooring.

Then, the flooring is delivered to customers around the U.S.

Over in China, the coal-powered Yibin plant is fully integrated from the brine splitting with a Nafion-coated, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane to creating acetylene from coal, to the creation of VCM and polymerization into PVC to the final flooring assembly.

The finished product is shipped by rail to the port of Shanghai, where it travels by cargo ship to Norfolk, Va. From there it is delivered to customers around the U.S.

The CEH evaluation shows that the Yibin production process in China results in higher carbon emissions from cradle-to-site than the Occidental process in the U.S. because it is a more carbon pollutant-heavy process and the PVC flooring is transported a farther distance.

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The analysis estimates the amount of CO2 equivalents released at each stage of PVC production "using academically verified sources and expert judgment." The report identifies 26 distinct stages of extraction, production, and delivery of vinyl floors from China to the U.S. market, and 23 stages in the U.S.-based cradle-to-site supply chain.

The authors point to four key findings:

• Manufacturer EPDs underestimate the carbon dioxide emissions from producing PVC flooring by between 8 and 180 percent.

The report says EPDs undercount the estimated carbon dioxide equivalent emissions from the production of vinyl tile flooring sold in the U.S. market by 27 percent for floors with PVC resins made in the U.S., and 171 percent for floors with resins made in China. For vinyl sheet flooring, EPDs undercount the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by 8 percent for floors with PVC resins made in the U.S., and 180 percent for floors with resins made in China.

• Vinyl flooring manufacturers use significant quantities of highly toxic chemicals like PFAS and mercury to produce PVC; these chemicals are hazardous to workers all along the supply chain and endanger frontline and fence line communities in the U.S. and abroad.

The authors say the report provides the first ever published estimates of the rate of use of PFAS, asbestos, and mercury in PVC flooring production. Their results show that on average, the annual production of PVC flooring at one representative manufacturing plant in Yibin, China used 33 kilograms (72.2 pounds) of PFAS.

Also in the Yibin plant, mercury is added to catalyze the reaction between chlorine and coal, generating toxic releases of gaseous mercury.

The reports says the Yibin plant uses between 1.1 and 2 kg of mercury per ton of PVC produced. When scaled up to annual PVC production, this amounts to more than 24,000 kg, or approximately 24 metric tons, of mercury consumed each year.

• Asbestos is used to produce chlorine to make PVC flooring in the United States and its importation represents the last remaining legal use of this toxic mineral fiber.

The report says, "While asbestos has been largely phased out of use in the U.S. because it is a known carcinogen, the U.S. government still allows the chlor-alkali industry to continue to use asbestos membranes to produce chlorine."

On average, the U.S. imports about 373 metric tons of asbestos from mines in Russia and Brazil each year. From Brazil, the report says, asbestos is transported via truck some 930 miles from the mine to the Port at Salvador. The product then is shipped another 5,400 miles by ocean freight to Ingleside, Texas.

Although Brazil banned the domestic use of asbestos in 2017, it continues to allow mining for exports. The long, global supply chain — from mining, bagging, shipping, to use in U.S. chemical plants, and finally disposal of membranes in open-air landfills — means asbestos can be released into the air and pose a risk of exposure to individuals.

• Vinyl flooring production has shifted to China, resulting in increased use of coal and higher carbon dioxide emissions.

China's production process has proven to be cheaper so much of the flooring industry has abandoned the U.S.

At least 25 percent of all floors sold in the U.S. today are vinyl floors made in China.

Since 2012, at least 18 U.S. flooring factories have closed and more than 2,500 workers lost their jobs, CEH says, citing news reports.

In the same time period, imports of PVC flooring from China soared from 78.5 million square meters in 2012 to 406 million square meters in 2020, the report also says, citing ITC Dataweb.

Vinyl industry officials take issue with much of the 54-page report but limited their response.

"The challenge with reports like this is the conflation and misuse of data with an extreme lack of context," said Susan Wade, vice president of marketing and communications of the Washington-based Vinyl Institute.

The trade group represents about 3,000 vinyl manufacturing facilities with more than 350,000 employees and an overall economic value of $54 billion.

"It would take a 50-plus page rebuttal just to unravel the hodgepodge of false claims and misleading statements," Wade said.

Vinyl Institute President and CEO Ned Monroe provided a response specific to U.S. PVC production. He also made four key points.

• CEH ignores the fact that chlor-alkali production of caustic soda and chlorine is a valuable resource for a wide range of manufacturing including aluminum, pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, disinfection chemicals, food, manufacturing, soap and detergent manufacturing, water treatment and more.

"CEH's inference that the U.S. PVC resin manufacturers are 'toxic' should be immediately discredited by anyone who understands the social value of chlor-alkali chemistries, and CEH should be called out for their bias rather than for having a sound criticism of the industry," Monroe said in an email.

• CEH grossly mischaracterizes membrane cell technology as a "regrettable substitution." PFAS is not widely consumed to produce PVC resin, nor is it in PVC resin. While some chlor-alkali membrane cells may be coated with fluorinated substances to maintain proper electrolytic function, these filters remain intact during their 3-to-4-year lifespan before being disposed of safely and responsibly.

"There is no indication that any levels of any individual or category of PFAS exist in the output of any chlor-alkali facility that incorporates this technology," Monroe said.

• Diaphragms in select chlor-alkali manufacturing processes use inappreciable amounts of asbestos and do so safely — and plants that still use this technology are heavily regulated and conform to strict U.S. Environmental Protection (EPA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards to ensure the health and safety of workers and consumers.

Monroe said the U.S. PVC producers' 2020 OHSA illness and recordable injury rates per 200,000 employee hours are less than half the rate for all chemicals and nearly 1/4th the rate for all manufacturing.

"Given CEH's concerns about asbestos, their report should address why it focuses so heavily on PVC's infinitesimal use of it while completely ignoring other materials, such as cement asbestos siding, roofing tiles, and cement pipe — considered the largest users of asbestos, primarily in third world developing countries," Monroe said.

• U.S. PVC resin production does not rely on mercury cell technology, Monroe also said.

"While the broader chlor-alkali supply chain in the U.S. supplies chlorine and caustic soda far beyond the PVC industry, just 0.002 percent of overall mercury releases reported by all industrial sites are a direct result of chlor-alkali production," Monroe said.

However, back at CEH, the group is urging manufacturers, consumers and designers to take action.

The group asks flooring manufacturers to immediately adopt policies that phase out the use of asbestos, mercury, and PFAS chemicals in PVC production. To assess alternative chemicals and "avoid regrettable substitution," CEH suggests using the GreenScreen for Safer Chemicals or ChemFORWARD databases.

The group also asks flooring manufacturers to embrace transparency by disclosing all product ingredients in EPDs, including those that are consumed in the process of PVC manufacturing, such as mercuric chloride.

In addition, CEH wants EPDs to go into more detail about product lifespan, recyclability, use and maintenance.

The group's message to building designers is to reject the latest trend toward luxury vinyl tile and wherever possible to recommend flooring with the lowest carbon and toxics footprint.

"Educate your clients about the carbon footprint and toxics concerns associated with PVC flooring," the report says.

The report also urges consumers to consider purchasing healthier flooring or carpet options instead of PVC flooring. Or, to just keep their flooring in place or refinish existing hardwood.

Another recommendation goes further. It tells consumers to also avoid buying other PVC-based products, such as vinyl siding for homes, vinyl window treatments and vinyl blinds.

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