What is seriously the worst most toxic plastic in your bathroom?

ANSWER: PVC

PVC stands for polyvinyl chloride. It’s made of carbon, hydrogen, and chlorine. These can release volatile organic compounds, or VOC’s, into the air.

What can they do?

They are known carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. They can cause respiratory irritation, central nervous system damage, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

What’s made of PVC?

Your shower curtain. Yes, some shower curtains are toxic. The “new shower curtain smell” is a sign of these VOCs being emitted. Worse still, the heat from the shower can draw the chemicals out of the curtain, which mix with the steam and absorb into your skin as well as breathing it all in. As a general rule, by the time you smell something, it’s already in your bloodstream.

Not only are shower curtains bad for you, they’re also bad for the planet. They can’t be recycled and take about 400 years to breakdown, and then they become even worse micro plastic.

You can, however, buy a PVC-free shower curtain, made out of either cotton, or hemp.

So, there you have it. Shower curtains can be scary things. Maybe the horror movies were right all along.