PEOPLE buy fake Christmas trees for all sorts of reasons: allergies to tree pollen, an easier cleanup, a firefighter in the family who’s scared you away from the real ones.

    But are you just as safe with an artificial fir as you are with a real-life tree? That’s a complicated question.

    To understand the answer, you first have to know what these trees are made of, and usually, that’s a synthetic plastic called polyvinyl chloride (PVC) — which is also used in construction pipes, toys, medical devices, and car interiors.

    PVC is a fire-resistant compound that can use metals like lead, tin, or barium as stabilizers, says Glenn Harnett, chief medical officer of American Family Care. As a result, a study from 2004 even found traceable amounts of lead in artificial trees.

    “PVC also releases gases known as volatile organic compounds, which are gases that can irritate the eyes, nose, and lungs,” Harnett says.

    In some cases, PVC may also contain phthalates — recognized endocrine disrupting chemicals shown to lower testosterone in lab animals and humans, says Bruce Lanphear, a professor of health sciences at Simon Fraser University.

    The bigger issue: It’s hard to tell what’s really in your tree.

    But do you really need to worry about the possibility of small amounts of chemicals lurking around?

    Lanphear says it’s tough to quantify the result of being exposed to your fake tree six hours a day, one month a year, for 10 years. But he says we’re all exposed to a variety of products all the time that can contain things like lead and phthalates, and that even at environmentally acceptable levels, this can potentially cause toxic effects on fertility and diminished testosterone levels in blood.

    “Lead exposure is an established risk factor for hypertension, infertility, and in kids, a diminished IQ,” he adds. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there is no safe level of lead exposure.

    But there are some ways to protect yourself. Products made from PVC tend to release more harmful gases when first exposed to air and as they start to degrade, says Dr. Harnett. So take the tree out of the box and put it outdoors when you first buy it.

    PVC plastic begins to weaken after nine years, Dr. Harnett says. So replace your tree before then, as you could be more exposed to metals when this happens.(SD-Agencies)