An environmental group is suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over its failure to regulate polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, as a toxic material – a position that is being challenged by plastics manufacturers in Louisiana and elsewhere.
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed the lawsuit in the District of Columbia District Court Aug. 19 in the wake of the federal agency not responding to the center’s petition to regulate PVC. The ubiquitous plastic product releases chemicals and cancer-causing agents, such as dioxin, into air, water and food supplies at all stages of its life cycle, according to the center.
“We are aware of the complaint filed by the Center for Biological Diversity,” Fred Neske, spokesman for Formosa Plastics Corp., which has facilities in Baton Rouge, told the Louisiana Record. “Formosa Plastics Corp., U.S.A., is a member of the Vinyl Institute (VI), which promotes corporate stewardship across the vinyl industry.”
Neske referred the Record to a recent statement about the lawsuit issued by the institute.
“Government health and safety agencies worldwide have studied vinyl and recognize the importance of products such as PVC pipe that delivers clean drinking water and vinyl blood bags that keep blood longer than competing types of containers,” the VI statement says. “Not only is vinyl’s safety in products well-established, but life-cycle data show that vinyl has lower environmental impacts than many competing materials.”
The plastics industry also argues that CBD offered no peer-reviewed scientific evidence backing the claims it made in its 2014 petition calling on the regulation of PVC as a toxic material.
The center has also singled out the Formosa Plastics plant in Baton Rouge as a PVC manufacturer and alleged that the plant released a million pounds of chemical pollutants over the past 10 years.
“In an area known as ‘Cancer Alley,’ in a Black community in St. James Parish, the company is now proposing to build one of the world’s largest petrochemical plants – a project the center and its Gulf Coast allies have sued to block,” the CBD said in a news release.
The center’s lawsuit calls on the EPA to classify disposed-of PVC as a toxic substance under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
“The center is seeking declaratory judgment that EPA has failed to act within a reasonable timeframe and an order compelling EPA to take final action on the center’s petition for regulations to classify discarded PVC as hazardous waste,” the complaint states.