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Storing your dry-cleaned clothes in a well-ventilated area helps dissipate the carcinogenic gas released by perchloroethylene (perc), which is used by 85 percent of dry cleaners in the United States.

How to store your dry-cleaned clothes in a well-ventilated area

Believe it or not, you can breath in perc from freshly-cleaned clothing up to five days after you bring it home, both while the clothes hang on the rack and as you wear them day to day.

So, if you send your clothes to a conventional dry cleaner, you'll want to take a few precautions when you bring them home. First, remove them from their plastic bag and then store them in a well-ventilated, less-occupied room of the house or outdoors. Keep them there for 4-5 days.

If you want to avoid bringing dry cleaning-related perc pollution into your home in the first place, why not try a less-toxic method of getting your clothes clean:

• Wet dry cleaning
• Liquid carbon dioxide dry cleaning
• Alternative solvent dry cleaning solvents
• Home dry cleaning kits

Storing your dry-cleaned clothes in a well-ventilated area helps you go green because…

• You can eliminate your direct exposure to perchloroethylene and other toxic dry cleaning solvents, and reduce the amount of these hazardous chemicals that is released into the environment.

Standard dry cleaning, despite its name, is neither a dry nor "clean” process. Approximately 85 percent of commercial dry cleaners use perchloroethylene as the liquid solvent in their cleaning method.[1] An individual cleaner only uses about 140 gallons of perc per year, but when this is multiplied by the 30,000 businesses it amounts to approximately 4.2 million gallons of perc that is used each year.[2]

Perc, a suspected carcinogen, can also negatively affect your own indoor air quality, as people breathe low levels of this chemical in areas where dry-cleaned clothing is stored.[3] According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), though consumers of dry-cleaning services are exposed to higher levels of perc than what could be considered normal levels, it is unlikely to be at an amount that causes cancer. Illness rates would depend on factors such as amount and length of exposure, overall health, and family traits.[4]

Glossary

• perchloroethylene (perc): Also known as tetrachloroethylene, a widely used chemical for dry-cleaning and metal degreasing operations that has been known to cause short-term side effects such as headaches, dizziness, and nausea and is considered a possible cancer-causing agent.

External links

• National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences - Dry Cleaners: Perchloroethylene (PERC)