That soy sauce stain on your linen pants is sure to require a trip to the dry cleaners. But have you thought that it might require a visit to your values as well?

    Many of us make choices about the food we eat or the household products we use based on personal values. Hopefully, we become savvy about how the products are made, and by whom, and how they might affect our personal health, the environment or our community. Likewise, selecting a dry-cleaning service can involve an examination of the effects of our choices.

    “Dry cleaning” means laundering fabrics using a fluid other than water. Dry cleaning is purported to have been discovered a century ago in France when, by lucky accident, turpentine was spilled on a tablecloth with stains that had not yielded in the wash but which disappeared after coming into contact with the turpentine.

    Highly flammable at low temperatures and toxic to breathe, turpentine and other substances that were used in early dry cleaning posed serious health threats to both the cleaner and the person who wore the clothes afterwards. As a result, an effective, economical and widely-available petroleum-based solvent was later adopted for use by the industry. Unfortunately, it, too, was a fire hazard.

    In the 1930s, perchlorethylene (or “perc” for short) was introduced as an alternative to the petroleum-based solvents in common use. Perc performed as a superior cleaning agent and had no flashpoint, thereby reducing the fire hazard presented by the other solvents. Perc rapidly became the industry's solvent of choice and is still being used by 85 percent of dry cleaners worldwide. But perc, also a petroleum-derived hydrocarbon, poses its own dangers to both personal and environmental health.

    Most of us know perc as “that smell” typically associated with newly dry-cleaned fabrics. The 35,000 dry cleaners in the U.S. and Canada collectively use over 300 million pounds of perc per year, of which as much as 90 percent (according to research estimates) is released directly into the atmosphere during the cleaning process. The remaining waste is either dumped into our water supply or is burned in hazardous waste incinerators, contaminating groundwater, food supplies and the air. One notable perc by-product, trichloroacetic acid, is produced commercially by the chemical industry for use as a potent herbicide. Another by-product called carbon tetrachloride is a known cause of ozone depletion.

    Due to these and other environmental concerns, the use and disposal of perc is heavily regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Industry spokespersons claim that much of the perc is captured for reuse, but records indicate that only a tiny percentage is actually recycled. Incineration of unused perc creates and releases toxic by-products, which may be true of the recycling method as well.

    According to the Environmental Research Foundation in Annapolis, Maryland, perc and other chlorinated hydrocarbons persist in the environment and tend to be toxic. They are also fat soluble, which means that they can accumulate in the body's fatty tissues, causing liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and a variety of cancers. Classified as a probable human carcinogen by both the EPA and the International Agency for Research in Cancer, perc leaches off dry-cleaned clothing, enters the body through the skin and can attack the central nervous system, causing headaches, nausea, dizziness and memory problems. Epidemiological research into serious and specific health concerns of dry-cleaning employees links the ill health of thousands of workers to perc exposure. Given the data, even the low levels of perc we bring home on our freshly dry-cleaned items is a legitimate cause for alarm.

    As a result of growing concerns, the last two decades have seen a pointed search for alternative solvents to replace perc as the industry standard, both to meet consumer demand for safe and effective cleaning and to protect the world in which we live. Fortunately, there are several quality options that do not rely on toxic chemicals.

1) “Multi-process wet cleaning" combines water, non-toxic biodegradable soaps, steam, heat and the judgment and attention of a skilled technician, who decides which technique will best impact each individual garment. This personalized process may sound more expensive, but the EPA reports that this “green” cleaning process is not only economically competitive but at least as effective as perc-based dry cleaning.

2) Automated, machine-based wet cleaning process is enjoying increasing popularity in Europe. Tightly monitored, adjustable controls minimize damage to garments typically associated with water-based cleaning.

3) A method which employs liquid carbon dioxide (CO2), much like the process used for decaffeinating coffee, captures existing CO2 from industrial and agricultural emissions without additionally contributing to global warming. Sadly, though field tests indicate excellent cleaning results, the detergents used in the CO2 system contain some volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which readily evaporate to the atmosphere, contributing to smog production and associated health problems.

4) An alternative growing in popularity in the U.S. uses liquid silicone as the cleaning solvent. The silicone solution is inert, meaning it does not chemically interact with the fabric being treated. Instead, it carries detergent to the fabric and then rinses away suspended dirt and oils trapped by the detergent. Because there is no chemical interaction, fabrics retain their shape, color and feel; wrinkle much less and retain no chemical odor. While not yet labeled as safe by the EPA and the Coalition for Clean Air, at least one company's silicone solution has undergone extensive testing and has demonstrated no significant adverse health or environmental effects.

    Alex Shvartshteyn is the owner of London Cleaners, Northeast Ohio's only dry cleaner currently using the liquid silicone-based GreenEarth® Cleaning system. “We're making this change because it is important to us to do as much as we can for our clients, our employees and our environment. The GreenEarth® Cleaning solution is biodegradable and safe to use, but it also does a better job of cleaning, especially for delicate clothes and high-end fashions with specialty trim. It's a win-win situation.”

    Trade-association leaders and industry regulators feel that alternative processes show great promise as eventual replacements for the traditional perc-based dry cleaning industry-wide. In the meantime, it is up to consumers to make a conscious choice and to create a demand for environmentally friendly products.

Halle Barnett is a writer and publicist from University Heights. She and her husband Benjamin Barnett own media schmedia, a full-service creative design and marketing studio. Halle is grateful for the opportunity to write about issues that help her readers make healthy choices. She may be reached at words@media-schmedia.com.