Message from charlie.cray@green2.greenpeace.org

[charlie.cray@green2.greenpeace.org]

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Original-TO:      dioxin-l@essential.org
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23 October 1996 
MEDIA  RELEASE 
 
GREENPEACE EXPOSES GREEN GAMES RORT 
 
Sydney, Wednesday 23 October 1996: Greenpeace today took 
action to defend the Green Olympics by digging PVC piping out of 
the Homebush site in Sydney. The action exposes the violation of 
the environmental guidelines which helped Sydney win the Games 
over other international bidders. 
 
Several kilometres of the banned PVC piping were on the site in a 
clear breach of the legislated Environmental Guidelines for the 
Green Games which states that: "Sydney is committed to minimising 
and ideally avoiding the use of chlorine based product 
(organochlorines) such as PCBs, PVC and chlorine bleached paper." 
 
Twenty-five Greenpeace activists collected and dumped the PVC 
piping at the front door of the Olympic Coordination Authority and 
used an excavator to expose piping already buried on the site. 
Greenpeace identified, obtained and laid safer alternatives to PVC 
on the Olympic site. 
 
Greenpeace Olympics campaigner Michael Bland said that 
alternatives to PVC were readily available which meant that the 
Olympics Coordination Authority, responsible for construction on 
the site, was either dishonest or lazy. 
 
"Someone is cutting corners here and the reputation of Sydney's 
Green Games is at stake," said Bland. "The flagrant undermining of 
the reasons why Sydney got the Games over other cities like Beijing 
and Manchester  threatens to be an international embarrassment for 
Australia." 
 
"PVC is clearly identified as being toxic in production, manufacture 
and disposal and contains lead - well known as a health and 
environmental hazard. This is why the guidelines ruled it out and 
several other international communities have banned it completely," 
said Bland.  
 
Contact Michael Bland 015 983 227 or 016 280 312 (pager) or 
Susan Cavanagh 04111 795 29 
 
Other contacts 
Dr Colin Grant, Executive Director, Environment, Planning and 
Estate Management, Olympic Coordination Authority on (02) 9228 
3333, (02) 9735 4800 
Ana Maria Rivera, Plastics and Chemical Industries Association Inc. 
on (03) 9699 6299 or 041 954 9831 
Suppliers of alternatives to PVC- see backgrounder over 
 
23 October  1996 
 
BACKGROUNDER 
WHY PVC IS BANNED FROM THE SYDNEY OLYMPICS 
 
Polyvinyl chloride ( PVC)  is one of the most common plastics in 
the world but Greenpeace is committed to eradicating it. The 
Environmental Guidelines for the Sydney Olympics seek to 
"minimise and ideally avoid" the use of chlorine based products such 
as PVC.  
 
PVC is toxic during its production, manufacture and disposal. This 
is because PVC contains a huge proportion of chlorine, unlike any 
other material used in the building industry. Chlorine is associated 
with a series of chemicals which are now banned internationally 
including PCB's, dioxins, CFC's and chlorine bleached paper. When 
the Environmental Guidelines for the Summer Olympic Games were  
being developed during the bidding process for the year 2000 
Olympic Games, many European communities were prohibiting 
PVC from their region. The result was a statement in the 
Environmental Guidelines which clearly  states that the use of  PVC 
should be "minimised and ideally avoided." Since then the guidelines 
have become part of NSW law. Greenpeace Australia was involved 
in every step of this process. 
 
The PVC industry has responded to the PVC section of the 
Environmental Guidelines  by asking their representative 

organisation, The Plastics and Chemical Industries Association, to 
commission a scientist from the Polymers department of CSIRO  to 
explain the beneficial qualities of PVC.  The report points out that : 
 
Virgin PVC is thermally and photochemically unstable, and various 
additives are used to reduce these problems before the fabrication of 
PVC into products. The dominant stabilisers are lead compounds 
(e.g. basic lead sulfate and lead stearate). Lead stabilisers are 
primarily used in rigid PVC for pipes, gutters and in cable insulation 
at a lower concentration. 
 
Burning PVC yields a number of combustion products of which 

carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, water and hydrogen chloride 
make up the largest part. Hydrogen chloride will form hydrochloric 
acid fumes, which are very corrosive. Burning PVC also yields large 
amounts of soot-containing smoke, which may contain 
polychlorinated dioxins and furans. Thermal decomposition 
products from PVC were more toxic to guinea pigs than those of 
three other common plastic materials (ABS, PP-PE copolymer and 
PP homopolymer). Extracts from PVC were more mutagenic than 
from three other commonly used plastics (PS, PET and PE). 
 
Source: "The environmental aspects of the use of PVC in building 
products", Plastics and Chemical Industries Association Inc., Dr. 
Russell Smith, CSIRO Division of Chemicals and Polymers. 
 
Although the PVC industry makes many claims about the ability of 
PVC to be recycled,  there is only one insignificant  PVC recycling 
scheme in Australia and it doesn't deal with any building materials. 
Used PVC ends up in landfill or is incinerated. Studies by the 

Danish Environment Protection Authority, the Dutch Environment 
Ministry  and the United States Department of Energy  have all 
found that increasing the PVC content of wastes burned in 
incinerators leads to higher emissions of dioxins.  In a 
comprehensive review of incinerators and other combustion devices, 
a Princeton University research group concluded that, in general, 
the higher the chlorine content of materials burned, the greater the 
dioxin output. 
 
HEALTH EFFECTS  
 
A report released in 1995 by the Danish Environmental Protection 
Agency follows PVC's life cycle and links it to harmful 
environmental and health effects. The Danish study links the 
production, manufacture, use and disposal of PVC with the 
chemical attack on human beings in the form of endocrine 
disruption, reproductive disorders, immune system suppression and 
a variety of cancers. In particular, PVC byproducts such as dioxin 
and some PVC additives such as phthalates are linked to disruption 
of the hormonal systems of living creatures, a phenomenon which is 
currently causing grave concern amongst environmental and human 
toxicologists. Greenpeace highlighted the problem of phthalate 
pollution in Homebush Bay near the only phthalate producing 
factory  operated by ICI in Australia in May 1996. 
 
ALTERNATIVES 
  
PVC continues to dominate many product areas in the building 
industry especially for waste pipe. There is a general agreement  
internationally that PVC should never be used for potable water. 
For every application where PVC is used there are many cheaper 
more robust and less toxic alternatives. Some alternatives such as 
vitrified clay pipes have been on the market  for years. Greenpeace 
Australia has recently released a document titled  The Chlorine 
Free Action Pack  which contains a database of  Australian and 
international manufacturers  whose products are made from a 
variety of materials other than PVC. 
 
Greenpeace is aware that some companies ( whose products are 
often cheaper than PVC) would have submitted tenders for pipe 
work on the Olympic site but were excluded by the specification  
which favoured PVC. 
 
Greenpeace has been in contact with some of these companies and 
they include: 
 
Industrial Pipe Systems 
Have supplied medium density polyethylene systems to dozens of 
councils and government authorities . Contact Mr E. Biyik , 
telephone (02) 9554 3977 
 
PGH Pipes Australia 
Manufacture a wide range of vitreous clay pipe for many 
applications. 
Contact : Paul Ryan, Account Manager, telephone (02) 9622 7711  
or mobile  018  402 106 
 
Blucher (Australia) 
Distributes a range of stainless steel pipes . 
Contact:  Morgens  Jensen, telephone  (08) 8374 3426 
 
END

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