Safety and the Environment
We have an obligation to future generations to construct our buildings using environmentally friendly products. Polisystem only manufacture and endorse such products; making product choice simple for designers, specifiers and contractors alike. We treat environmental performance seriously so you can rest assured your system is sustainable.
Lightweight, thin membranes -
reduce the transport energy required
Durable membranes -
stand the test of time thus energy is not required to replace them
Part of sustainable systems -
e.g. our ecologically friendly roof gardens
Minimum energy used during installation -
no naked flames in hot-air welding, fastening & adhesion (safer too!)
Suitable for refurbishment -
benefit from environmentally products and use what is already in place
Polisystem:
Environmentally friendly
waterproofing systems
Why use TPO?
Vinyl chloride monomer (in PVC) is a known carcinogen.
PVC Roof membranes contain phthalates which are primarily used as ‘plasticisers’ to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic flexible.
Phthalates are the most abundant industrial pollutants in the environment, and are widely present in air, water, soils and sediments. Some have been measured in virtually all fresh water and marine environments including Antarctic pack ice and deep-sea jellyfish. Phthalates released into the atmosphere during manufacture, can leach from products that contain them, contaminate food and be ingested, breathed or absorbed into the body.
Various animal tests have shown they can cause reproductive and developmental harm. These effects include:
- Decreased fertility in females
- Foetal and birth defects
- Reduced survival of offspring
- Altered hormone levels and uterine damage
- Damaged prostate, penises and testicles in male foetuses and infants
Several regulatory agencies have concluded that these studies are relevant to humans. They also correlate to some human effects, such as pregnancy problems observed in one group of women living near a pvc factory and in workers exposed to high phthalate levels.
All this is against a backdrop of disturbing trends in reproductive health, such as rising rates of testicular cancer - up 84% in the UK since the 1970s - and declining sperm counts across Europe since the 1930s.
Toxic effects on the liver, kidneys, heart lungs and blood have also been observed in animal studies.
Unlike PVC, TPO is environmentally friendly and non-carcinogenic.
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