Numbered dry cleaning tickets keep clothes and their owners matched up from beginning to end. In a March 2021 article in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, several public health and environmental experts called for the industry to move to different solvents, while cautioning that more evaluation of those alternatives is needed to determine their long-term health effects as well. In California, concerns about perc contaminating the air led the state to phase out its use by 2023. In New York state, managers of dry cleaning businesses are required to receive special safety training, machines that use perc must be certified, and the businesses must document the use of perc and other hazardous substances. California's ban on perc goes into effect in 2023 and several other states are studying bans on the chemical as well. EPA required dry cleaning facilities located in residential buildings had to stop using the chemical in December 2020. Short-term inhalation exposure can result in upper-respiratory tract and eye irritation, kidney dysfunction and neurological effects, among other health concerns, and exposure to perc been associated with several types of cancers in workers. Perc is still widely used in the dry cleaning industry, but there's been increasing attention to its potential health risks. It was safer to handle, but did a much better job of cleaning, required less massive equipment and floor space, and could be utilized in retail locations offering one-hour service. After World War II, the volatile synthetic solvents carbon tetrachloride and trichlorethylene gave way to a product known as perchlorethylene ( perc), which became the prevalent solvent choice for the industry. In the United States, the dry-cleaning industry is fairly new and has developed only during the past 75 years. Operating through his dye-works company, Jolly offered a new service and called it "dry cleaning."Įarly dry cleaners used a variety of solvents including kerosene - to clean clothes and fabrics. In 1855, Jean Baptiste Jolly, a French dye-works owner, noticed that his tablecloth became cleaner after his maid accidentally overturned a kerosene lamp on it. Jennings apparently used his earnings from his invention to support the abolitionist movement, and helped to organize the Legal Rights Association, a group that raised court challenges to discrimination. The details of his method, sadly, are lost to history, due to an 1836 fire that destroyed the paperwork for scores of patents. He wasn't satisfied with laundry methods of the day, and in 1821 was granted a patent for a process called dry scouring, which was advertised as being able to remove dirt and grease from clothing while allowing garments to retain their original shape. One early pioneer was Thomas Jennings, a black freedman who was a tailor in New York City. Efforts to clean clothing without soap and water go back a long time.
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