Perc in your clothes
Next time you take something to the dry cleaners, don’t assume your designer suit or sleek outfit will only be touched by “dry” powders or cleaning tools.
“Dry” cleaning isn’t dry at all. Your suit or other prized garment is dabbed with chemical solvents in their liquid form before being placed in a machine for agitation. Then it is thoroughly dried, pressed, and shaped.
The chemical widely used for dry cleaning is “perc,” a household word in dry cleaning and environmental circles. Perc is a manufactured chemical with the formal name of perchloroethylene.
Perc is everywhere—in our drinking water and in the air we breathe. Exposure to high levels of perc can cause severe headaches, dizziness, nausea, skin irritation, liver or breathing disorders, difficulty speaking or walking, and even unconsciousness and death. Cancer has been observed in laboratory rats and mice who swallowed perc, although perc as a definite cause of cancer among workers who use perc has not been fully established.
After dry cleaning, perc is removed, so people who wear dry-cleaned clothing have little or no risk of coming down with an exposure-related illness. Perc-laden air does escape into the atmosphere, and it can leak into the ground from spills, leaks, or waste from an establishment using perc. Water as well as soil can become contaminated, and the EPA has strict limits on the amount of perc that can be allowed in drinking water.
Most of the country’s 36,000 dry-cleaning establishments are very small businesses with fewer than 10 employees. Because of their use of perc, these businesses are highly regulated by OSHA, the EPA, and the DEQ. In July of this year the EPA announced that it was tightening rules for using perc in dry cleaning, including phasing out all dry cleaning services located in apartment buildings or other residences. New drying machines that extract perc from dry-cleaned fabrics have been developed to minimize the release of the chemical.
According to industry sources, the use of perc has dropped from 220 million pounds in 1996 to only 37 million pounds in 2004. Other solvents with a cleaner health record such as liquid carbon dioxide, silicones, propylene glycol ethers and improved hydrocarbons are gradually taking perc’s place.
The use of perc is not limited to dry cleaning. It is also a highly effective solvent use to degrease machines and tools.
Copyright © by Griffith Publishing 2008
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