Abstract
Perchloroethylene (PCE) is a highly utilized solvent in the dry cleaning industry because of its cleaning effectiveness and relatively low cost to consumers. According to the 2006 U.S. Census, approximately 28,000 dry cleaning operations used PCE as their principal cleaning agent. Widespread use of PCE is problematic because of its adverse impacts on human health and environmental quality. As PCE use is curtailed, effective alternatives must be analyzed for their toxicity and impacts to human health and the environment. Potential alternatives to PCE in dry cleaning include dipropylene glycol n-butyl ether (DPnB) and dipropylene glycol tert-butyl ether (DPtB), both promising to pose a relatively smaller risk. To evaluate these two alternatives to PCE, we established and scored performance criteria, including chemical toxicity, employee and customer exposure levels, impacts on the general population, costs of each system, and cleaning efficacy. The scores received for PCE were 5, 5, 3, 5, 3, and 3, respectively, and DPnB and DPtB scored 3, 1, 2, 2, 4, and 4, respectively. An aggregate sum of the performance criteria yielded a favorably low score of “16” for both DPnB and DPtB compared to “24” for PCE. We conclude that DPnB and DPtB are preferable dry cleaning agents, exhibiting reduced human toxicity and a lesser adverse impact on human health and the environment compared to PCE, with comparable capital investments, and moderately higher annual operating costs.
Highlights
Due to the excellent solvent characteristics, degreasing properties and a non-flammable behavior, perchloroethylene (PCE) is widely used by the dry cleaning industry in the United States and Europe, with approximately 70% of dry cleaners using PCE as their primary solvent [1,2]
dipropylene glycol n-butyl ether (DPnB) and dipropylene glycol tert-butyl ether (DPtB) were assumed to be interchangeable with respect to all characteristics discussed in this study, as they are both dipropylene glycol butyl ethers of very similar structure; all data for dipropylene glycol butyl ethers are a compilation of DPnB and DPtB, unless explicitly stated otherwise
An extensive literature review revealed that the use of glycol ethers (GEs) and other non-PCE chemicals for dry cleaning purposes is still very limited compared to PCE as of data from 2010
Summary
Due to the excellent solvent characteristics, degreasing properties and a non-flammable behavior, perchloroethylene (PCE) is widely used by the dry cleaning industry in the United States and Europe, with approximately 70% of dry cleaners using PCE as their primary solvent [1,2]. That PCE is associated with various adverse human health effects, such as a stressed central nervous system and cancer of the liver, kidneys, and other organs [3,4,5]. These studies have prompted the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reclassify PCE as a likely human carcinogen [6]. PCE is ranked 85 out of 129 regulated priority pollutants for which analytical methods have been developed [4]. Use of PCE has been curtailed by the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) passed in 1990, which significantly expanded the EPA‟s authority on the regulation of toxic air pollutants
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