Is Your Flooring Making Your Child Sick?

Choose your flooring wisely, as a new study has found phthalates from PVC flooring in the urine of young children.

Phthalates have long been a health concern, particularly with children, with many countries banning their use in products that go into a child’s mouth, such as teethers, baby bottles, teats and toys.

Used as chemical ‘softeners’ by manufacturers, they are suspected of causing chronic diseases in children, asthma and allergies and hormone disruption.

The new study, conducted at Karlstad University Sweden, indicates that phthalates can be taken up by the body in ways other than orally, for instance through breathing and through the skin.

Urine samples were taken from 83 randomly selected children in western Sweden and the prevalence of four types of phthalates in the urine was measured.  The levels of certain phthalates proved to be higher in the urine of babies that had PVC materials on their bedroom floor, and showed that the uptake of phthalates in infants can be related to flooring material.

“With this study as a basis, we can establish that there are other sources that should be taken into consideration in regard to the uptake of banned chemicals and that we do not only ingest them in our food,” says Carl-Gustaf Bornehag, professor of public health at Karlstad University and leader of the study.

So now don’t just think ‘what colour’, ‘what texture’, ‘how easy is it to clean’ and ‘will it stand up to our wear-and-tear’…  you should delve deeper and find out if your flooring is phthalate free.

Phthalate-free options are available and will meet all your other criteria too!

Why take a risk with PVC flooring when other natural alternatives can be used.

References:

http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=120485&CultureCode=en

http://scienceblog.com/54605/infant-bodies-absorb-phthalates-in-floors/