Polyvinyl chloride.
In 40 years it has morphed into the likes of house siding, Beatles records and credit cards. But when the call goes up at a building site for PVC, odds are good the sought-after object is a length of pipe. Â Â
Lightweight, inexpensive and easy to install, PVC pipe gained traction as a building product in the 1960s. Today, it is approved by the New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code, though with various asterisks, such as when it can supplant cement storm drains. Municipalities can petition the code to limit PVC use more than the state does and one locally has done so to ban it outright.
The economics vs. metal pipe lean heavily toward PVC. At the Aubuchon Hardware chain, a 21-foot length of 2-inch black iron pipe is $170; a 20-foot length of 2-inch PVC is $12.
“It”™s great,” said a White Plains homeowner who had recently re-piped his house with PVC, including with pliant, code-approved plastic pipe that snakes around corners. “It would have been a huge project with metal.”
“It”™s the number-one product for water and wastewater pipes in North America,” said Bob Walker, executive director of Uni-Bell PVC Pipe Association, a Dallas-based trade organization that represents the major PVC producers and a board of directors member for Engineers Without Borders. “It does not deteriorate or corrode underground and creates sustainable infrastructure that will last hundreds of years, versus 50-100 years for metal or cement.”
PVC”™s asterisks run the spectrum from White Plains, where stipulations include height restrictions on use above the sixth floor, to Yonkers, where it is prohibited in the drainpipes of boiler rooms, but the sky”™s the limit on height. New Rochelle bans it.
PVC”™s dark side got its closeup Feb. 27, 1975, when a New York Telephone Co. switching station on Second Avenue in Manhattan burned, along with countless miles ”“ reportedly 100 tons ”“ of PVC sheathing on the telephone wires. Seven-hundred firefighters fought the 16-hour blaze, which is still recalled today.
White Plains began allowing the use of PVC in building projects 4 ½ years ago, according to Paul Wood, executive officer for the city.
“We complied with what everyone else was doing by coming into compliance with what most of New York state has,” Wood said of the city code. “It was just too expensive to do business in the city. We had archaic laws.” He said the change is already manifesting itself in two ways: by reducing the cost to homeowners who can now use the less-expensive PVC; and
Ӣ the city has benefited through developers who had been reluctant to build, but who now embrace projects that are financially viable.
“The short answer for PVC pipe use in Yonkers is yes, but it depends on the application,” said William J. Schneider, Yonkers deputy commissioner of Housing and Buildings, in written response to questions about the Yonkers code. “Water service and sanitary house connections are not permitted to be PVC. Certain storm water applications are acceptable depending on the proposed loading on the pipe. Inside the house is acceptable if per the Plumbing Code of New York state.”
Mike Florio has been a plumber for 40-plus years and with the city of Yonkers for 14 years, currently as plumbing inspector supervisor.
Florio witnessed the big push toward PVC use in the 1960s and ”™70s.
“It”™s a good material if it”™s installed properly and used in accordance with specs,” Florio said. Among its positives: “It”™s smooth inside; you don”™t get the buildup you get with iron pipes.” He said restrictions beneath kitchen sinks and as floor drains in boiler rooms are because PVC should not be exposed to water hotter than 140 degrees.
In New Rochelle, PVC pipe is not permitted.
Henry Carletti is chief building inspector for the city of New Rochelle, a position he has held for 30 years. He is also vice chairman of the Westchester County Licensing Board, the licensing authority for plumbers. New Rochelle does not allow PVC in construction because of action the city took in 1986. That year, Carletti was part of a board that petitioned the state to allow New Rochelle to use stricter rules for 13 different sections of the state”™s Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code, one of which regarded PVC. The reason, he cited: “The toxicity factor.”
Carletti is well versed on burning PVC. “We”™re looking to protect the public,” he said. “The firefighters go in with breathing apparatuses. But for the public, during a fire, when PVC burns it produces hydrochloric gas. When you breathe it and that gas comes into contact with water ”“ such as in your lungs ”“ it turns to hydrochloric acid.”
He recalled the New York Telephone fire of 1975 because of its PVC connection.
“You know who I get calls from?” Carletti said. “Doctors call me the most about this. They”™ve heard about it and they tell me their contractor wants to use it. I say not only should you not use it, it”™s not permitted in New Rochelle.”
Extreme heat is the enemy of PVC, far more so than it is of the metal pipes it is coming increasingly to replace.
According to the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, a consortium of environmental and legal organizations from around the United States:
“When heated in a building fire, PVC releases toxic hydrogen chloride gas, forming deadly hydrochloric acid when inhaled by firefighters and building occupants. Firefighters face harmful occupational exposures when battling fires laden with PVC building materials and consumer products. Building occupants may be killed from inhaling toxic PVC fumes before they are able to escape. After 9/11, the EPA measured the highest ambient air concentrations of dioxins ever near Ground Zero, likely due to the combustion of PVC and other chlorinated materials.”
But Uni-Bell”™s Walker noted: “If the flame is removed, PVC is self-extinguishing because of the salt content in the polymer.”
Hugh Fox Jr. knows both about the air at Ground Zero and about PVC.
Fox is president of Local 628 of the International Association of Firefighters, representing 322 Yonkers firefighters. The 129 Yonkers fire officers ”“ lieutenants, captains and chiefs ”“ are represented by the Uniformed Fire Officers association. He is also a fire code enforcement officer, a level-one arson investigator and was a Ground Zero volunteer.
While he is the union president ”“ a three-year elected position ”“ Fox does not actively fight fires, but he said he goes to any multiple-alarm blaze to look out for his fellow firefighters.
Fox”™s current efforts include pressuring the state Legislature to enact a “presumption heart bill” and a “presumption cancer bill” that would presume heart conditions and cancers that can hit firefighters later in life are of a workplace origin. “They go from zero to 60 in a matter of minutes and then fighting fires in full body armor,” he said of the stresses particular to the profession. “It takes a toll.”
A 2004 New York Daily News article by then-staff writer Bob Port on the New York Telephone fire of 1975 said PVC-caused cancers can take 20 years to show up and cited Dr. Stephen Levin, an expert in chemical toxins at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Levin said of firefighter and leukemia victim Dan Noonan, who fought the Second Avenue blaze along with 699 other firefighters, “It is my view that your exposure to the combustion products of the PVC-insulated wiring present in the New York Telephone Co. building … made some contribution.”
“We”™re very concerned about toxic fumes,” Fox said. “Everything that”™s made of plastic, when it burns, it”™s toxic. Two big breaths from the fumes of a burning car interior can kill. You should see some of the colors of the flames that come off a burning car.
“In 1908, when you had a fire, you had wood, brick, paper, cotton ”¦ Today, even a wooden cherry dresser might be a veneer of cherry over pressed particle board.
“It”™s not paper and wood anymore; it”™s vinyls and plastics, mattresses made of foams. Even 30 years ago when I started, fires were less toxic. There are just more and more toxic elements that appear when something like a shower curtain or a vinyl couch catches fire.
“I”™m not singling out PVC; not saying it”™s good or bad,” Fox said. “It”™s certainly easier on the men who don”™t have to carry all that cast iron around. And PVC goes together one, two, three. But the builders are not there when a building catches fire. They”™re out of there and we”™re in.”
Fox was on the detail that recovered human remains at Ground Zero and today suffers from “WTC cough,” of which he said, “They don”™t really know what it is. Mount Sinai just called about more tests. I have my moments of heavy breathing problems.” But, he continued, “God forbid if it happened today, I”™d be down there again. I volunteered. We knew damn well what we were breathing ”“ this was air that bodies had disintegrated in.
“I don”™t think I can stop it,” Fox said of builders”™ and society”™s push toward plastics. “You”™re not going to eliminate PVC,” he said. “If that”™s what I”™m dealing with, I need to improve the breathing apparatus. It”™s about the quality of air and focusing on the seals.”
The 2005 New York City Building Code update reads:
“One of the most controversial debates regarding materials permitted in the construction of housing relates to plastic, or more specifically polyvinyl chloride piping for plumbing and sprinkler systems. PVC piping is currently permitted in one- and two-family houses in New York City, but not in multifamily housing. While PVC piping is substantially less expensive to purchase and install than iron piping, opposition from plumbers and firefighters has prevented its expansion as a permitted material. The opposition of firefighters is based on concerns of toxicity that might be released if PVC piping burned during a fire. Obviously, New York City must ensure that its materials are safe, but the fact that PVC piping is used in low density housing in New York CityUnited States, is counterevidence that PVC is safe for this use. Rather than resolve this and other materials issues in the political arena, scientific and safety organizations are best able to make recommendations on these issues.” and in all kinds of housing in a majority of jurisdictions in the
Patricia Ploeger is executive director of the Hudson Valley Mechanical Contractors Association, which represents “about a thousand” plumbers and contractors in 24 different companies.
“Builders love it,” she said of PVC. “You stick it together and ”“ voila! ”“ you”™re a plumber. It”™s cheap and they can make more money if they”™re not going for quality.” Still, she noted, a master plumbing license is required to install PVC in Rockland, Westchester and Putnam counties and in most cities beyond those borders, including Poughkeepsie, Beacon and Kingston. Beyond that, once you get out into the countryside, “as long as it”™s code, anything goes.”
She raised the practical issue of durability, citing a scenario familiar to those who set out to hang a painting, only to strike a gusher.
“What happens is eventually someone drives a nail through the wall or puts a screw through it and the pipe breaks,” Ploeger said of PVC. “One issue other than not wanting to contribute to property damage and personal injury in case of fire is our liability as installers ”“ because when it fails, the builder doesn”™t fix it, the plumber does.
“For years and years we”™ve felt that any metal pipe was a better product.” But, she acknowledged, “We have no choice if the builders and developers demand it. We can heartily recommend metal, but the owner has the final say as long as it”™s within code.”
