Not Just The Flames: Modern Houses Are Filled With Plastics, Filling Smoke With Toxins And Contaminating Burn Sites [View all]

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Homes today are different, too: Across the world — from California to Chile to China and Portugal — they’re often covered and filled with synthetic materials, including polyurethane spray foam insulation, vinyl siding, laminate flooring, synthetic carpeting, PVC pipes, polyester and pressed-wood furniture, and plastic electronics. You could say that the construction boom worldwide is now fueled not just by concrete, but by plastic. The global value of plastic building material exports rose in the decade from 2012 to 2022, from $10 billion to more than $16 billion, with China dominating their manufacture, followed by Poland and Germany. And that boom is expected to continue: In China alone, demand for plastic construction materials could soar to almost $44 billion by 2033, with that nation continuing to be a hotspot for rapid construction and urbanization — as well as for wildfires that jump into villages and cities.

The United States has a robust domestic plastics manufacturing industry, while still importing on top of that, buying more than 17% of the global value of synthetic construction materials. Other fire hotspots also import plastic construction materials, such as Australia (with imports of $274 million in 2022) and Brazil ($33 million).

These petrochemical building materials are a far cry from the traditional wood, fabric and metals used in the past. In fact, the favorite of plastic construction firms is polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, which critics say is the most toxic type of plastic on the market. These synthetics come with a high toxic cost: Of the more than 16,000 chemicals present in plastic products, more than 4,200 are persistent, bioaccumulative, mobile and/or toxic, though hazard information remains lacking for more than 10,000.

When modern homes burn, they create a noxious toxic smoke that can include lead, arsenic, asbestos and cyanates. According to a 2022 study, burning the type of plastics found in homes produces smoke that is more toxic than wood or cardboard. It also causes more inflammation and lung injury in mice, and is more mutagenic. This highly hazardous smoke then flows over and through nearby houses, depositing toxic soot and ash on indoor surfaces, which absorb them and become “reservoirs” of hazardous chemicals like benzene and cyanide. According to a 2023 study, the surfaces in a surviving home then slowly release hazardous compounds over time into the indoor air of the home.


Melted plastic paneling on a building after the deadly 2009 Black Saturday bushfire in Australia. Due to the multibillion-dollar production and export of plastic building materials and home furnishings, the threat posed by wildfires to plastic homes is now a global problem. Image by Nick Pitsas, CSIRO via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0).

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https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/as-global-fire-risk-rises-modern-homes-become-toxic-plastic-traps/