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Digital News Report – By January 1, 2023, California will ban the use of dry cleaning chemical called perchloroethylene (PERC) which is considered by the US Environmental Protection Agency as a toxic air contaminant. California have laws that are stricter than the federal laws pertaining the use of PERC chemicals for dry cleaning and the banning it in the next 12 years.
The California Air Resource Board (ARB) said that machines using PERC have been declining from 4670 units in 2003 down to around 2,000 units in 2009. The California ARB first declared PERC hazardous in 1991.
According to the EPA Toxic Reporting Inventory database there was over 107,043 pounds of PERC released in 2009 for the state of California. PERC is a chemical that is created by man and is a liquid solvent that its vapor is used for degreasing clothing and for metal cleaning. The top user of PERC in the United States is the dry cleaning industry. PERC is considered a possible human carcinogen.
By Victoria Brown