Tetrachloroethylene Doesn't Scare Me
 

I was just reading about dry cleaning fluid. Tetrachloroethylene.

Now......I recognize that Pelicanheads in their infinite wisdom have determined that the Earth is way too robust for humans to seriously impact its overall health. Climate change is a big hoax, I am told.

But just so you know, worldwide annual production of tetrachloroethylene was 1 megaton. That's one million tons. In 1985. Dry cleaning fluid. But again, you all should relax. We've been told that the Earth is in no danger whatsoever from humans.

Moderators, I didn't think this was political, per se. If this ends up being moved, please accept my apologies in advance.

I refuse to iron. I would rather walk to work in nicly pressed clothes (pressed by someone else), than iron. Period!

Vanity can be deadly in so many ways. Personally I throw all my clothes in the same washing machine. Whats dry cleaning again? :)

What happens with the leftover liquid? The barrels that sit behind the drycleaners have always scared me in a flesh-melting toxic-waste kind of way.

I worked for a short time for an environmental consulting firm. They would do a lot on investigations into ground water contamination. One of the first steps was always to look at the neighbouring businesses, if there was a dry cleaners near by you could almost bet where the chemical came from.

My first real job, post military, was as an equipment maintenance & repair tech for a large computing and office machine company.
We would go around all day doing scheduled PMs on all types of computer periphials, typewriters, and the like.
One of the standard issue items in our nice leather tool bag was a pint of carbon tetrachloride (carbon-tet, we called it). Great cleaning fluid, and non flammable as I recall. Later ID'd as a powerful carcinogen, I think, and now impossible to find. We had a drum of the stuff in the office shop area for refills...:eek:

some now use a dry ice or similar ultra-cold process to dry clean clothes

I don't wear a suit anymore because of that crap and several other things. Tetrachloroethylene, nasty stuff a good reason not to dry clean anything.
It is good with a splash of tonic and a lime after a hard day in the woods.

The real safety issues:

Exposure to high concentrations of carbon tetrachloride (including vapor) can affect the central nervous system, degenerate the liver<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-7>[8]</SUP> and kidneys<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-8>[9]</SUP> and may result (after prolonged exposure) in coma and even death.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-9>[10]</SUP> Chronic exposure to carbon tetrachloride can cause liver<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-10>[11]</SUP><SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-11>[12]</SUP> and kidney damage and could result in cancer.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-12>[13]</SUP> More information can be found in Material safety data sheets.

I think we should move away from using noxious chemicals when possible. It will make the world a more sustainable place.

But we have it pretty good her in the United States. The things that go on in the third world are simply astounding.

In the early 70"s I worked as a summer student in a Highways lab where it was used freely to clean sample containers, test equipment etc. If I recall we even had heated "baths" of the stuff for cleaning. Of course there were zero precautions other than rubber gloves perhaps. Again I was a summer student for a couple of years but there were several permanent emplyees who were there for years. I wonder how they are today....luckily no known issues with myself as yet.

Well, I recall inspecting a wastewater treatment plant in my early regulatory compliance days with a state environmental agency and on the desk of the plant operator was this sign which read, "It may be sh#t to you, but its bread and butter to me"....................

With that said, I have been cleaning up contaminated aquifers from various chemical releases for over 30-years now and when you bring up dry cleaning fluids often referred to in our industry as DNAPL's (dense non-aqueous phase liquids) your talking about real challenges. Dry cleaners used perchloroethylene (perc) for decades before moving on to innocuous cleaners. Besides the old pump and treat methodologies the latest technologies deal with stimulating bacteria with hydrogen release compounds that literally digest the chlorinated solvents. Once the contaminant plume has been delineated through a series of groundwater wells, the hydrogen release compound is injected through a network of injection wells. The "natural occuring" anaerobic bacteria that is stimulated is dehalococoites (sp?), which seems to love chlorinated solvents. DNA testing is used to assess colony populations of the bacteria, however, more critters can be injected into the aquifer as well. The solvents will break down over time. Amazing, a bacteria that will digest chlorinated solvents! The technology was attributed to a Georgia Tech Professor who discovered the benefit of the bacteria during experiments with treatment plant digesters.

Pretty interesting stuff. The military is tackling the issue as every base in the country that has a drycleaning facility has had some release into the environment of perc.

Next time you go to an older dry cleaner, stop and take a look at the parking lot your in, chances are your environmental regulatory agency had a geoprobe punch a hundred holes through it to find this nasty stuff.

Bob
73.5T:cool:

I dry clean my socks and underwear. Up yours tree huggers!

Well, the tax dollars you pay to your state every year goes to fund the clean up of the aquifers that most likely provide your potable water. Next time you drive through a dry-cleaner look in the back of the shop and see if you see any large buckets, some distressed vegetation and smell solvents. Many of these guys still toss this crap out the back door, "out of sight, out of mind" mentality. So be assured that your helping to pay upwards of 150K+ for cleaning up the mess!! Multiply that by dozens across your state and your spending big bucks to keep your water clean.

Next time you pick up your dry cleaning, why don't you ask the person behind the counter just what they use!

I just flip mine around once, then turn 'em inside out, then flip them around again and finally toss 'em. The thought that they now reside in a landfill somewhere makes a little tetrachloroethylene sound downright palatable, now doesn't it?

From the sound of it, if you do dryclean your undies, actually it would be just "up mine!".

I'm a 'professional' and I like to look sharp. Slacks, shiny shoes, handsome necktie. I almost never wear a dress shirt that is not white. And I HATE HATE HATE to iron. As it turns out, the dress shirt cleaning service is not dry cleaning. They just launder them like usual, starch and iron. I'm happy to pay them to do this. I have mor than a dozen shirts so I just swing by there every couple of weeks or so. Time is WAY more important to me than money. My weekly home laundry volume isn't the size of a medicine ball.

Interesting visual there...

Once?! Well aren't YOU just 'special'. What time is tea, Nancy?