Are Plastic Lockers Toxic and Harmful?

There are many people believing that plastics are toxic to a certain extent. They hesitate to buy plastic lockers on the market and avoid using them as much as possible because they believe toxic plastic lockers are harmful to health.

So, here is the puzzle: whether plastic lockers on the market are toxic and harmful?

There are various plastics and most plastics are nontoxic because plastics are macromolecular substances which can not have harmful effects on human bodies. For example, engineering plastics, such as ABS resins, are nontoxic and usually used as materials of construction for machine components and precision parts.

Some plastic products become toxic because additives used for plastic manufacturing are toxic, or sufficient chemical reactions do not occur during the synthesis of plastics. As a result, when plastic lockers are put into use, micromolecules are released by plastics. 

Properties of toxic plastics
Toxic plastics such as PVC will soften when the working temperature is raised up. Moreover, the softer the plastics become, the larger the proportion of the plasticizing agent and the low molecular weight polymer contained in the products is.

If such a phenomenon happens, in general, the plastic locker might be harmful.

Some plastics are colorful or bright-colored because pigment, which is organic or inorganic, is added to plastics during manufacturing. At the same time, the pigment used for those bright-colored plastic lockers is toxic.

The quality of plastics is impure when plastics are made of recycled plastic or impure raw materials. The security of these kinds of plastics cannot be guaranteed because their raw materials might be waste medical plastics and recycled plastic.

In substance, plastic lockers are always safe for users if service conditions are paid attention to and the lockers are not used to have contact with foods, especially at high temperatures. Moreover, plastic lockers with signs of aging are required to be replaced in time.

When are plastic lockers toxic and harmful?
To be serious, the gas formed by burning plastic lockers will be harmful to the human body. For example, polystyrene burning can produce toxic toluene. Only a little toluene can cause vomiting if it is taken in by human and even lead to blindness. 

The burning PVC can produce toxic gases. However, besides the burning, high temperatures are also factors that make plastics decomposed and then the toxic substance such as the benzene ring will be released by plastics. 

It is such a severe problem that plastics are flammable. Even the food grade plastic can release more toxic substances and dense smoke than solid woods do.
However, plastics like PE and PP with simple molecular structures will not damage human bodies with reasons above. 

After reading passages above, we can get some new cognition of the security of using plastic lockers. As chemical products, plastics with scientific processing technologies are harmless to people under normal conditions.