What is Plasticizer Migration?

What is a plasticizer?  A plasticizer is a special additive that is added to plastics like PVC to
make it flexible.The council of the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) defined a plasticizer as “a substance or material incorporated in a material (usually a plastic or elastomer) to increase its flexibility, workability or distensibility”. Generally speaking when comparing  two items made from the same polymer,  the more flexible one will have more plasticizer and the more rigid one will have less plasticizer.  

Plasticizer Migration happens when these chemicals move out of the plastic compounds like vinyl and rubber and are absorbed into surrounding materials. Plasticizers are not chemically bound to the polymer so they are able to move freely through a product to the surface where it can be absorbed by anything that comes into contact with the surface.  There is no known way to stop this phenomenon and it is well documented in both chemical and medical device studies.  The migration can occur in a liquid or a gas phase and therefore can be accelerated by the presence of moisture and moisture vapor.

Plasticizer can migrate from flooring into the adhesive. In this case the adhesive can lose its ability to bond the two substrates together and degrade to where it may begin to appear like petroleum jelly.   Another example where this can happen is when a rubber mat is placed on a vinyl floor leaving a stain on the vinyl where the mat made contact.

Therefore special care must be taken around products like vinyl that contain plasticizers to be sure that surrounding materials are designed to be stable and resistant to the effects of any plasticizers that migrate.