National Clothesline

A banner year? For whom, you no doubt ask. For most cleaners, 2002 was a year of struggle to stay even. But it was a banner year for the banners — the perc banners, that is.

2002 will go down in the annals of the industry as the year that brought the first ban on perc, despite tenacious industry opposition in California. Of course, the ban doesn’t actually take effect until 2020 and there is still a possibility of reversal down the road. It will be a continuing issue through 2003 and, we suspect, for many years beyond.

Will the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s action prove to be the high water mark of the anti-perc campaigners, or will it be the beginning of a wider movement to force cleaners to switch from their favorite solvent? We have already seen one instance of a local official picking up on the California action to propose a perc ban in his own area. There will likely be others trying to wave the banner of perc banning beyond southern California. Are you ready for them when they come to your hometown?

One thing to consider when reading an editorial is the motive of the author. Opinionated writings are designed to convey a message, take a stance, inspire change, persuade, etc. So, as you read this (or any other subjective piece of writing), bring along a grain of salt. Always keep in mind that some writers are perfectly willing to obscure facts, or twist the meaning of them, in order to suit their purpose and sway the reader to their side.

Fortunately, newspapers are structured to include sections exclusively for letters to the editor and editorial commentary specifically so that people may wax philosophical on controversial topics and voice their rants and musings. The rest of the paper (minus those wonderful advertisers) is for the news — just the facts. At least, that’s how it’s supposed to be.

Unfortunately, sometimes a “news” article is nothing more than propaganda — and not even thinly-disguised propaganda at that. Good examples of this can be found in some of the press releases being issued lately by parties in the Greater Los Angeles basin and Chicago who are seeking to ban perc in the industry. In many cases, the articles are worded meticulously to imply negative things about drycleaners without actually saying them.

An example springs to mind from an article in the Dec. 18 issue of the Chicago Tribune, written by Peter Sinsheimer and Robert Gottlieb. These men suggest that perc must be banned because it cannot be monitored, writing: “When cleaners do get monitored, non-compliance rates have been extremely high, between 70 and 95 percent, according to several studies.” The names of these so-called studies are never mentioned, and there is no indication of the number of cleaners who were examined, where they were located, who performed each study, etc. Yet, the message is clear: most cleaners are unethical and lazy, apparently. It’s one thing to use numbers and figures to illustrate a point, but when a news article references nameless studies without any form of context, it is grossly irresponsible and unethically manipulative. People who write such statements are only interested in inciting their readers, not informing them. That kind of writing should be reserved for the editorial pages.

What should cleaners do when this happens? Should they fight fire with fire? It seems only fair, and yet, water seems to be the better choice. The best method of combatting rhetoric is not with more rhetoric. The truth is much more effective. Unfortunately, once a fire is started, the damage is often already done, even when that fire is extinguished quickly. For cleaners, those fires have been burning for far too long. No matter how much the industry strives to improve, there is always a new attack, a new reason for cleaners to be on the defensive. It will never get easier.

With that said, we’d like to proffer kudos to all the industry members and groups who have responded to all of the misleading stories in the news with words and facts of their own, informing the public that cleaners actually care about the environment and are committed to running their businesses responsibly. Certainly, the job of a drycleaner is frustrating at times, but perhaps it just comes with the territory. After all, cleaners are experts on the removal of dirt and stains.