July 19, 2008 | Bathroom, Health, Cleaning tips, News
As if the orangey-pinkish mildew growing on your shower curtain weren’t enough reason to chuck it and get a new one, there’s a new report out about vinyl shower curtains that may give you pause. Apparently that new shower curtain smell is caused by an onslaught of chemicals.
According to the study, over 28 days the vinyl shower curtains tested released 108 volatile organic compounds (VOCs), a single new vinyl shower curtain will release total VOCs that exceed the typical total VOCs residential level for four days. In fact, the total VOCs from a WalMart vinyl shower curtain were so high that testing had to be stopped so as not to destroy the testing equipment. And, the testing did not match the temperature and humidity of a typical household shower, which would likely raise the amount of VOCs released.
Now, having told you all about the nasty VOCs found in vinyl (specifically PVC) shower curtains, what’s the problem with VOCs? After all, they are volatile organic compounds, and we like organic things, right? In this case, not so much. The organic part refers to the fact that the compounds contain carbon, but the worrisome part is that we call them volatile. VOCs include hazardous chemicals like benzene, formaldehyde, and chlorine to name a few. They can cause acute (immediate) symptoms like headache, nausea, dizziness, irritation, and asthma, but they’re also to blame for long-term health damage like cancer, liver and kidney damage, and central nervous system damage.
Basically, if your shower curtain has that new vinyl-y smell to it when you take it out of the bag, you might want to hang it outside on a clothes line to let the chemicals seep from it and be blown into the neighbor’s yard (just kidding!). Or, consider buying a shower curtain that isn’t made of PVC and doesn’t have the smell to begin with.
As for the one you’ve had hanging for years now in the guest bath, it’s probably ok by now. The chemical release happens most actively in the shower curtain’s first few weeks of life. But if it’s covered in salmon-colored sliminess, you might want to think about replacing it anyhow. Let’s face it, shower curtains are no fun to clean. By nature they’re hard to scrub, and if you’re going to get it clean and keep it that way, it’ll need a good scrub. If you’re too attached to get rid of it, or you don’t want to risk a new PVC curtain in your shower, remove it from the curtain rod, take it outside and spray it down well with lemon juice on a sunny day. Leave it in the sun and let the combination of sunlight and lemon juice get rid of the mildew. Give it a good pelting spray with your carwash hose attachment before you bring it back in (the agitation and friction will loosen any leftover mildew spores).
RSS feed for comments on this post.
The URI to TrackBack this entry is:
http://broomhuggers.com/2008/07/19/shower-curtain-ickies/trackback/
Kathy Porter says:
Thank you for the information, we are inneed of two new shower curtains, and no I won’t be buying any with PVC.
July 21st, 2008 at 2:17 pmPatricia says:
Or try one of those new hookless shower curtains that are made of fabric and net. I have had one for almost a year–no vinyl smell and no mildew.
August 4th, 2008 at 7:07 pmKarissa says:
I used to buy the cheap disposable liners, but invested in a heavy duty plastic shower curtain liner that I’ve had for about a year. Whenever it starts to get that gross pink hue, instead of chucking it (and having it sit in a landfill), I put it in the washing machine with my whites. It comes out super clean. The upside is that I don’t have to worry about it sitting in a landfill and I don’t have to buy a new one. The worst part is getting it out of the machine - sometimes water gets caught in it and gets on the floor around the machine when pulling it out. No biggie in my opinion. Well worth the washing.
When this one is ready to go, I will definitely replace it with a fabric type liner that will last longer.
August 5th, 2008 at 7:36 am