National Clothesline

By Bill Bogus

Good news from the International Fabricare Institute. According to the federal government, IFI will be part of the process that will determine emission standards.

This comes as no surprise. As early as 1921, IFI, known then as NID, or the National Institute of Drycleaning, saw the need for regulation. During that time, flammable solvents were being used in drycleaning plants.

Because of the lack of chemical knowledge and safety precautions, the drycleaning industry became a hazardous occupation. Explosions and fires were common. The industry was in deep trouble.

Help was needed. The government had no safety rules or regulations for drycleaners. This dilemma became a problem for NID. To prevent catastrophic problems from occurring, regulations would be needed. The government granted NID the authority to self-regulate. The government had no rules established for drycleaners, but NID had experience and knew the root cause of the problems.

Drycleaners had no knowledge of what caused the cleaning solvent to explode nor what preventive measures were needed to prevent fires and explosions. With knowledge and strict obedience to regulations, NID turned the drycleaning industry into a safe, non-hazardous enterprise. Emphasizing obedience and commitment to regulations, drycleaning was made safe for the employees, community and the environment.

Later on, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, perchloroethylene (perc) was introduced as a drycleaning solvent because it was a non-flammable synthetic solvent with excellent drycleaning quality. Perc not being a fire hazard allowed perc plants to operate on Main Street and in-town locations. Drycleaning became a flourishing business. Customers were happy. Drycleaners were happy. When people get too happy, something always happens. The word got out that perc was a carcinogen. No one saw a carcinogen nor understood what the word meant. But the environmentalists knew what the word meant — it meant cancer!

Now, perc may be carcinogenic, but carcinogens are also in the food we eat. Nature is full of carcinogens in small amounts in particular plants and foods. Carcinogens are minuscule in the food chain. It’s the dosage that makes the poison, and that applies for both natural and synthetic chemicals.

Perc is not a problem as it is being used in drycleaning and it is not being used as was reported in the Los Angeles Times. Perc is too costly to discard. It is recovered into the system to the last drop. No one gets wet with perc.

Scott Phillips, M.D., clinical professor of medicine in clinical pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, had this to say in his news release to the press: “We can find toxic effects for almost any substance, including water, when substances are tested on laboratory animals. For example, scientists give them larger and larger amounts of a substance until a health effect is observed. Thus, a chemical might be found to cause cancer, but in reality, humans would never be exposed to such quantities. In fact, lab animals get exposed to more substance in a single day, pound for pound, than humans do in a lifetime.”

So uninformed activists are scaring people for their own interest.

Here is some good news from an article written by Rep. Donald A. Manzullo of the 16th Congressional District of Illinois, who chairs the house committee on small business. His article states as follows: “Over the last ten years, our small businesses have created 75 percent of all new jobs. They developed more than half of our private GDP. However, in the past two years, the United States has lost 16 million manufacturing jobs.”

It often has been said, and it is true, that small businesses are the backbone of our economy, not the big corporations who scramble off shore for cheap labor and high profits. Now, in California, banning perc will be a big mistake. Perc is the life blood of small drycleaning plants. In the manner it is being used, it is safe. For more than 50 years of use, perc has proven to be safe and not to cause health problems if used according to regulations. All risks claimed by the activists were overstated and hypothetical.