Resilient Floor Covering Insitutute Joins Effort

Washington, DC, Nov. 20, 2009--In response to increased attacks on flexible vinyl products, the industry has formed the Flexible Vinyl Alliance in an effort to respond more quickly to initiatives at the state and local levels.

“We want to activate a grassroots network,” said Kevin Ott, coordinator of the FVA. “We want to get more ears to the ground and add more voices to the debate.”

The Phthalate Esters Panel of the American Chemistry Council in Arlington, Va., is providing funding for FVA for its first 18 months, Ott said. The announcement of the formation of FVA was made Nov, 17, but the alliance has been in operation since Sept. 1 and its first steering committee meeting was earlier this month.

Sources said phthalates manufacturer ExxonMobil Chemical Co. was the driving force behind the creation of FVA and that phthalates manufacturers and compounders felt that they needed to develop their own network at the state and local level to address specific issues involving flexible vinyl and phthalates.

“They felt that they weren’t getting enough help defending products that use phthalates as a plasticizer,” said one source.

ExxonMobil is a member of both the Phthalate Esters Panel of ACC and the Vinyl Institute in Alexandria, Va.

The 11-member FVA steering committee includes representatives from PVC compounders, molders fabricators and manufacturers and all three major U.S. phthalate manufacturers.

There are also representatives from SPI and the Resilient Floor Covering Institute and Canadian pipe manufacturer Ipex Inc., whose representative, Veso Sebot, is also a member of the 3-year-old Vinyl Promotion Network, an informal group of companies and organizations in the vinyl supply chain with a similar mission of promoting the benefits of vinyl.

Flexible vinyl products, in particular toys and items intended for children, have been the targets of activists who seek to have retailers take those products off their shelves.