Pressure grows on car firms over PVC

Date: 07/10/1999

By Renée Cordes

EUROPEAN car-makers are coming under growing pressure to restrict the use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in their vehicles, according to company officials and environmental groups.

While a handful of manufacturers have been making efforts over the past few years to find alternatives to the synthetic softening agent - used, for example, in dashboards and vinyl seats - General Motors recently became the first to go public in declaring its intention not to use the substance at all in car interiors.

The company cited numerous reasons for the move in its announcement, which was welcomed by environmental groups as providing a major incentive for other firms to follow suit.

In an internal company memorandum obtained by Greenpeace International, GM cited several benefits to be gained from ending the use of PVC, such as luring customers who are increasingly making purchases based on environmental concerns and the evolving legal restrictions on the use of the substance.

"If now the biggest car manufacturer in the world says look, there are environmental and health risks associated with PVC, that is a major step forward," said Axel Singhofen, EU toxics advisor at Greenpeace. "GM is the first car company to break the code of silence surrounding PVC, which is good news for the environment and bad news for the PVC industry."

In a related move, GM also recently became the world's first car manufacturer to require its suppliers to introduce internationally accepted environmental management systems by the end of 2002.

Within the EU, the use of PVC in cars has come under scrutiny amid evidence that the substance creates dioxin when it burns or when car parts are recycled. Anti-PVC campaigners claim that when dioxin is released into the environment, it can travel very long distances and can cause cancer and damage to the reproductive, developmental and immune systems even when only released in small quantities.

In its proposal for an EU-wide car recycling law, the European Commission originally called for the use of PVC to be severely restricted in future auto production in the Union. But that ran into fierce opposition from car-makers, who claimed it went too far.

The car recycling measure finally approved by EU governments this summer allowed manufacturers an extra three years, until 2006, before they have to take financial responsibility for recycling old scrap cars, although it also brought forward the date from which new cars will be covered by the legislation to 2001.

Meanwhile, car-makers are busily exploring safer alternatives and taking voluntary steps to restrict the use of PVC in what is becoming an increasingly competitive sector of the market - environmentally friendly vehicles.

"For a long time, we have been thinking about minimising PVC wherever this is possible," said a spokeswoman for DaimlerChrysler. The company has not, for example, used PVC for interiors or undercoatings in its Mercedes cars for several years At the firm's research centre in Ulm, Mercedes test drivers recently drove models of the new A-class over 500,000 kilometres worth of gravel roads to test a new underbody panelling made of natural fibres.

Although the new material is lightweight, Daimler engineers claim that it is even stronger than steel and that it is easy to recycle after the car has reached the end of its useful life.

Greenpeace notes that Nissan, Volkswagen, Bayerische Motoren Werke and Adam Opel, GM's European subsidiary, and Peugeot are all already using substitutes for PVC in some way, or looking for alternatives. Environmental campaigners and industry officials also report that car part supply companies such as Delphi Interior Systems and Lear Corp. of Michigan are moving toward finding alternatives to PVC, citing the environmental concerns expressed by European car-makers.

"The dangers of PVC seem to be increasing," said Dolf Lamerigts, technical director at the EU car-makers' lobby ACEA. "This means that auto manufacturers are starting to look more and more at possible alternatives."

Lamerigts added that although ACEA encouraged its members to use environmentally friendly materials, the decision on whether to use alternatives to PVC was a matter for each individual manufacturer.

European car-makers are coming under growing pressure to restrict the use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in their vehicles, according to company officials and environmental groups.