Are PVC Pools Safe?

Drowning Risk

• Even though inflatable PVC pools are only about a foot deep, this is still deep enough to for a small child to drown in. Many small children do not know how to swim. The bottoms of the pools are slippery, and a child may fall. Also, if a child dives into such a small amount of water, she can be knocked unconscious and drown. Small animals can also drown in small amounts of water. Toy dogs, for example, often do not know how to swim. All inflatable swimming pools need a cover and a protective fence to keep out curious animals or children when no adult is around.

Carcinogens

• PVC emits numerous carcinogens in trace amounts, notes the Healthy Building Network, but nowhere near as much as smoking. These carcinogens include dioxin, ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride. These chemicals also can transmit to a baby by the mother’s breast milk. PVC can also leech volatile organic compounds or VOCs into the air and soil. People need to be exposed for a long time in high doses to become ill or to cause birth defects, so using a PVC pool through the summer will not cause cancer.

Environmental Concerns

• PVC also emits VOCs into the environment during its manufacturing process. PVC cannot be recycled because of the additives and softeners used to make PVC soft and flexible. America throws away 7 billion pounds of PVC products, including pools, every year, according to the Healthy Building Network. Burning PVC to dispose of it, instead of burying it in a landfill, releases dioxin directly into the air. Instead of disposing an undamaged PVC pool, use it with supervision and in other ways, such as a foot soak rather than a “kiddie pool.”

Alternatives

• Many inflatable pools are made with PVC, but some are made with polypropylene, thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). Some hard-shell non-inflatable wading pools are not made of PVC. Always supervise children when they are in a pool, even if the wading pool is only a few inches deep. Dump the water when finished so pets, wildlife or wandering children cannot get inside and drown.