Are vinyl floors safe for nurseries?
Avoid when you can. Vinyl flooring is PVC, and studies link vinyl floors with higher phthalate exposure in babies and kids.
What's actually in it
Vinyl flooring is PVC. Older vinyl was often softened with phthalates such as BBP and DEHP. Newer vinyl may use other plasticizers, but it is still plastic flooring.
The main path for babies is dust and hand-to-mouth contact. Babies crawl, touch the floor, and put their hands in their mouths.
What the research says
A 2013 Indoor Air study found higher MBzP, a BBP phthalate marker, in infants who had PVC flooring in their bedrooms.
A 2019 Environment International study of U.S. homes found that children in homes with 100% vinyl flooring had urinary MBzP levels 15x higher than children in homes with no vinyl flooring. It also found higher BBP in hand wipes and dust.
If you are choosing new nursery flooring, skip vinyl when you can. Choose wood, cork, or linoleum. If replacing the floor is not realistic, wet mop often and use a washable wool rug as a softer play surface that is not made from PVC.
The research at a glance
| Study | Journal | Year |
|---|---|---|
| PVC flooring is related to human uptake of phthalates in infants. | Indoor Air | 2013 |
| Children's exposure to phthalates and non-phthalate plasticizers in the home: The TESIE study. | Environ Int | 2019 |