Target Joins Companies Phasing Out PVC

You know that new-shower-curtain smell? Maybe not as well known or beloved as the new-car smell, but here's what it is: PVC.

Poly-vinyl chloride — and you won't find it much longer at Target (or Wal-Mart), which agreed this week to phase out using the plastic in products and packaging. Several other companies — Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Nike and Apple among them, according to Newsday, are doing the same for their own products.

Why? Manufacture of PVC has long been a source of pollutants, and increasingly studies point to worrying indications that elements of the plastic are absorbed into the body and may cause health problems, like disrupting the hormonal system.

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