- Learn about opportunities in the
Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM) industry
Vinyl chloride, a gas used to make plastics, is an acute respiratory irritant that can cause headache, drowsiness, and dizziness.
Hydrogen chloride produced during the gasification process of
vinyl chloride is neutralized with lime.
Consumers can recognize some products made of
vinyl chloride because they have a ``3'' or a ``v'' next to the triangular recycling symbol.
EPA's conclusion that "the association [between
vinyl chloride and cancers other than the liver] is weak and any estimated increase in mortality from cancer at these sites is likely to be less than for liver cancer" (U.S.
For Rosner and Markowitz the story began in 1993, when they traveled to Lake Charles, Louisiana, to look at what they were told was "a warehouse of material" about
vinyl chloride and cancer.
PVC facility will produce 2.1 billion lb/yr of chlorine and caustic soda, 1.65 billion lb of
vinyl chloride monomer, and 1.3 billion lb of PVC.
The recent
Vinyl Chloride ship incident was handled without a new bridge, even though 594 kilograms of monomer were released, according to the "Lloyds List" newspaper.
The company has admitted it vented the carcinogen
vinyl chloride into the air and falsified monitoring reports.
Other dangeous chemicals include
vinyl chloride for making PVC plastic and ammonia for synthetic fertilizer.
Merchant was instrumental in the development of ethyl
vinyl chloride polymers and in the introduction of SMA polymers and polystyrene emulsions in coating and sizing applications.
Besides affecting polymer properties, residual monomers are also often toxic, e.g.,
vinyl chloride present in the highly versatile thermoplastic poly(
vinyl chloride) is known to be a carcinogen, and acrylonitrile is extremely harmful.