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Vinyl shower curtains sold at major U.S. retailers breathe out toxic chemicals that have been linked to grave health problems, according to a report released Thursday by a national environmental organization.

The curtains, sold at Bed Bath & Beyond, Kmart, Sears, Target and Wal-Mart, among other greater retailers, contained complete concentrations of chemicals linked to liver damage and damage to the central nervous, respiratory and reproductive systems, said researchers as being the Virginia-based Center for Health, Environment & Justice.

The organization commissioned the study about two years gone to determine what caused that “new-shower-curtain odor” familiar to most consumers.

“This smell be able to make you feel longing, give you a cephalalgy, make you feel nauseous or [effect] other health furniture,” said Michael Schade, a co-author of the report.

Researchers assayed the chemical composition of five new polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, plastic shower curtains purchased from Bed Bath & Beyond, Kmart, Sears, Target and Wal-Mart. One curtain was then tested to determine the chemicals it released into the air.

The study found that the shower curtains contained high concentrations of phthalates, which have been linked to reproductive personal estate, and varying concentrations of organotins, compounds based attached tin and hydrocarbons. One curtain tested released measurable quantities of up to 108 volatile organic compounds into the air, some of that persisted for intimately a month.

Seven chemicals, that include toluene, ethylbenzene, phenol, methyl isobutyl ketone, xylene, acetophenone and cumene, have been identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as hazardous air pollutants, said Stephen Lester, the Center notwithstanding Health, Environment & Justice’s science director and a co-author of the report.

Potential health effects included developmental damage; and harm to the liver and the central wellstrung, respiratory and reproductive systems.

Phthalates and organotins are often added to soften or otherwise enhance the curtain; they more easily evaporate into the bearing or cling to household dust, Lester said. So do volatile organic chemicals, he said.

Vinyl chloride, a greater building block of PVC, is a human carcinogen, Lester said.

Representatives of the companies selling the shower curtains were not available for comment.

Little information on toxicity is serviceable for 86 of the 108 chemicals detected in the curtains, Lester said.

The tests did not replicate the heat and humidity in shower use, conditions researchers hold would in a fair way increase the concentration of released chemicals, according to the recite.

The EPA has tested vinyl shower curtains, and in 2002 said it found many of the same chemicals were released.