Vinyl

Vinyl, durable and useful plastic material used in making a variety of products. Vinyl plastics were first manufactured commercially in 1927. By 1973 the production of vinyl plastics in the United States totaled 4.6 billion lb (2.1 billion kg). One of the strongest vinyl plastics is polyvinyl chloride (PVC), produced by combining vinyl with chloride to form vinyl chloride gas, and then putting the gas through a process known as polymerization. Research in the 1970s showed that serious illness, including a form of liver cancer, can result from breathing air polluted by vinyl chloride. The Environmental Protection Agency now requires that manufacturers install equipment to eliminate vinyl chloride from the air breathed by workers.