Rainwear Central Rainwear Forum

Has anyone noticed the anti PVC fervor in the U.S. besides me??? I have been reading about that SOME of the plasticizers - the chemicals that make PVC soft and pliable, can cause hormonal problems and in one case- diabetes (!) Now, as a man of science, I take most of these writings with a grain of salt.... mostly, these dire warnings are from some well meaning folks who take liberties with the scientific research that is out there, and twist it till it fits their "warning".

There are no studies out there that make a definite link, and even if they do, PVC is so around you: your new car smell, your carpet, your drain piping, busses, planes- that my raincoats are a very small part of it. -But- Distributors in the US are following the lead of some Euro and Scandinavian counties by dropping everything made of PVC. Look around you- You can hardly buy a PVC shower curtain- they are now made of PEVA- a kind of stiff, rubbery material.... Gerber is no longer making pvc plastic pants, and is also using PEVA. Our own dear raincoats are increasingly being made of polyurethane, (PU), a kind of (not bad.. but bubbles off it's backing) rubber. Try to find a PVC baby bib for your grandniece, like I didn't!

But, I think with the fetish market- which has supplanted the raincoat industry, we will always have PVC... Unless of course, if you happen to live in the State of California where you now CANNOT buy a vinyl raincoat, or have one delivered to you!!! I saw this on a web site where they were selling PVC rainsuits- (Barre (VT) Army & Navy I think it was... or another.) Said right after the description: NOT FOR SALE IN CALIFORNIA!

I'm glad I have all the raincoats I need....

Well I don't know what to think. I was strictly a pvc raincoat person most of my life - didn't get my first rubber raincoat until I was 35 (of course after that I was hooked and fully converted to rubber only). I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at age 33. Coincidence? I hope so, considering that as you say, PVC is all around the environment.

PU isn't so bad though, my wife has a new raincoat made from PU-coated cotton that's really soft & flexible, and extremely comfortable for her to wear.

Most of the new vinyl/PVC products are "phalate free" which at least implies the toxic stuff is not in the material. What that does mean is that the garments are a little less soft. Fine by me as I like them to rustle and crackle anyway!

sorry kulshan, but the information in your message is not quite right. There is only one manufacturer, that's the German BASF, who makes plastiziser which gives the same effect as phtalates, but the use of that plastiziser is not very widely spread. Maybe you think of materials which in daily speech are called 'vinyl' or 'PVC', but are in fact polyurethane coated polyesters. All those shiny black sexy 'vinyl clothes' are today PU. Also a lot of the rainwear materials, especially the lighter ones (with backing fabric) are PU. The shiny transparent foils used for raincoats are as far as I know still 'real' PVC and do definitely contain phtalates. PU based foils are not used for raincoats. You can find PU condoms and plastic pants but PU is normally used as combination with the backing fabric, either on top or on the inside. However there are differences in that phtalate category, only the most suspicious ones are banned in EU, but not e.g in China.

I can appreciate the comments about plasticizers leaching out of PVC which is well documented now in the clothing industry, but I have tried looking for cotton backed PVC in an effort to learn to create my own pvc rain coats and it is quite difficult to even find that.

The only success I have had without sending for it from some far off country, is locally in some material suppliers and then it is only sold for use as table cloths and has patterns that would'nt lend itself to being worn as a serious raincoat by males - ie strawberries on bright Pink chequered backgrounds etc.
No wonder some of the few PVC raincoat makers still around can't get hold of rolls of thick PVC cotton backed material.
If demand for this type of rain coat was to increase then the clothing and textiles industry may produce more but with the added hazard of chemically unsound Plastic then PU will be all thats left soon I think.

Hi jjai,
try Mansam Products in Manchester, maybe they have what you're looking for or they may trace it.

http://www.mansam.com/

I had recently a discussion with the owner of one local rainwear supplier here in Finland, and he told me that 90 % of the products are today made of PU based fabrics. They buy the fabrics from Belgium and have a subsupplier who does the sewing and welding in Estonia, as it is too expensive to do that in Finland.

http://www.sademan.fi/kuvat/SADEMANkirja2010.pdf

'Nokian' rubberboots are not made in Finland any more, they come from Slovakia, Serbia, Malesia etc. (yes, Nokia was once something else, making rubber items e.g. rubberboots, cables and pulp&paper). Nokian boots are still made of real rubber. Even in that product group PU is today replacing rubber, all the nicely coloured boots are PU, not rubber anymore. Most PU-boots come from China.

http://www.nokianfootwear.fi/eng/