Polyvinyl chloride

Polyvinyl chloride has an abysmal reputation in the museum world,
mostly due to vinyl film holders that quickly deteriorate and
offgas.  However, in industrial applications, PVC has a good
reputation and is used for siding, plumbing and sewer pipes
(applications you would not expect to see an unstable plastic prone
to deterioration being used).  Has anyone systematically looked at
the long term stability of hard PVC?  Is PVC's reputation due to
poor quality plasticizers used in some applications?

Alan Hawk
Collections Manager, Historical Collections
National Museum of Health and Medicine
Medical Research and Materiel Command
2460 Linden La.
Silver Spring, MD 20910


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 26:23
                Distributed: Wednesday, October 31, 2012
                       Message Id: cdl-26-23-010
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