April 29, 2018, by Debra Lynn Dadd

CORRECTION

On 23 January 2018 I published the question and answer below. I have to admit I had all of my attention on the claim of this vinyl flooring being “nontoxic” and so didn’t actually look at the flooring itself.

Another reader contacted me about this same product but asked the question in a different way.

So now I want to give a different answer, which is about the product, instead of the claim that it is nontoxic.

These “vinyl planks” are made from a fairly new material called wood polymer composite (WPC). It is a form of vinyl that combines real wood fibers and PVC to create a flooring material that is dimensionally stable, resilient, and waterproof. I can see the benefits of doing this, as this is much better performance than wood.

It’s a “click” installation, which means it is one piece with a tongue-and-groove interlocking edge and an underlayment.

I called a manufacturer of WPC flooring and the materials are, from top to bottom:

Polyurethane finish
PVC top layer
PVC+wood composite core
polyurethane foam cushion on the bottom

So it’s all petroleum except for the wood particles.

Now question from the second reader was: Is it outgassing phthalates?

Some vinyl flooring does contain phthalates.

It has long been known that the vinyl chloride monomer itself is hazardous to health. After studies in the 1970s showed that VCM causes cancer, the manufacturing process was completely closed to eliminate worker exposure. But consumers don’t have that same protection. According to the Centers for Disease Control, it is possible for extremely low levels of VCM to remain in PVC and be released from the plastic during use. These levels are considered to be totally harmless by health authorities for exposure through food packaging and beverage bottles. However, food packaging is a single exposure, which is not the same as the repeated exposure that happens from a consumer product (such as vinyl flooring). The current Occupational and Health Administration (OSHA) permissible exposure limit is 1 part vinyl chloride per million parts of air over an 8-hour workshift—an infinitesimal amount.

So it’s within the realm of possibility that enough VCM could outgas over time and be trapped and concentrated within a room or a home that it could be a problem.

But beyond this is my consideration about biocompatibility. And this is actually my #1 concern. Toxicology doesn’t address this. There is an exchange between our bodies and the natural world that happens in ways we aren’t even aware of or understand. But it happens.

Wood feels good to me. Plastic doesn’t. And I just wouldn’t lay 2000 square feet of carcinogenic VCM plastic in my house, regardless of measurable outgassing or not.

So that’s my answer about WPC.

Debra :-)

This week I received a question from a reader. In the context of asking a completely different question, she said. "We are going to replace the current flooring with non toxic vinyl plank flooring.”

Nontoxic vinyl plank flooring????

I wrote back to her and asked what vinyl flooring she thought was nontoxic and why.

She said, "We are using GoHaus Luxury vinyl planks. They are floorscore certified. Have I been tricked? Is this not a safe product to use?”

And here is my response to her.

FloorScore is an indoor air quality certification for for hard surface flooring materials, adhesives, and underlayments.

It was developed by Scientific Certification Systems in partnership with the Resilient Floor Covering Institute (RFCI), a leading industry trade association of flooring manufacturers and suppliers. FloorScore qualifies flooring products for many green building programs, including LEED v4, WELL, BREEAM, and CHPS.

Floorscore is administered by the RFCI, with SCS as the exclusive certification body.

Their website says "By testing representative product samples and focusing strictly on the relevant chemicals of concern, we deliver the results you need without excessive testing.” So they are not testing for all chemicals.

The standards for FloorScore are outlined in Indoor Air Quality Product Performance Standard for Building Interiors.

I looked through this document, but could not find any actual standard that tells what chemicals are being tested for and what amounts are allowed. What it says is:

So I found the CDPH/EHLB Standard Method. Version 1.1. I couldn't find version 1.2 online. Here's the list of what they test for.

What needs to be tested for PVC vinyl flooring is PHTHALATES. There are no phthalates on this list of chemicals being tested.

So they can certify vinyl flooring that outgasses phthalates to "meet their standard."

GREENGUARD does the same thing. They certify crib mattresses that outgas phthalates by not testing for them.

So I would not consider this FloorScore certified PVC flooring nontoxic.

This type of certification program where the industry gets together and certifies their products to be acceptable for indoor air quality is suspicious to me. I often see these programs (the carpet industry has one too) certifying products I would not recommend based on research of the toxicity of the materials they are using.

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