GreenEarth Cleaning

7/23/2009

Going Green with Jen

I am so exited that I have found a “GreenEarth” dry cleaners right down the road from me. They are Martinizing Dry Cleaners. I just think they are so awesome. Now I can stop stressing out about how our clothes smell like chemicals from our previous dry cleaner.

Martinizing uses Green Earth Cleaning Solutions. The GreenEarth process cleans with a pure liquid silicone, which is basically liquefied sand. The same sand that the earth has been creating for over six billion years. That sounds really safe and obviously earth friendly to me. I can not say the same for the majority of other dry cleaners out there. They use a petroleum-based solvent called perchloroethylene. One federal Environmental Protection Agency calls perchloroethylene a possible-to-probable carcinogen, and you could be breathing it in, without even knowing it. PERC, as it is called, is also classified as a Toxic Air Contaminant, and is carefully regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, both in how it is used and how it is diposed of. PERC has also been known to cause headaches, nausea, dizziness and the inability to focus. I don’t know about you. But, I am definitely not down for PERC.  Not only is bad for you and the environment but it is hard on your clothes too.

The GreenEarth cleaning solution is a chemical inert. That means it doesn’t interact with fabric. It just carries the detergent to your clothes, and then carries away the dirt and oil. GreenEarth Cleaning may be the friendliest dry cleaing process ever. There are no hazardous chemicals used. So there is nothing to dirty the air, contaminate the soil or pollute the water. And unlike perc, the liquid silicone that is used can be safely diposed of. It merely breaks down into its three natural components-water, carbon dioxide and sand.

If you do not have a GreenEarth dry cleaner near you and your only choice is to use a PERC dry cleaner.

Please unwrap your dry cleaned clothes when you get home and airing them out, but if you take the plastic bag off inside your house, the PERC just goes into the air, where it can last up to a week. It’s better to air dry cleaning out in an open garage or outside. Another option is to just buy clothes that do not need to be dry cleaned.

If you live or work in a building that has a PERC dry cleaner, you may want to have your local health department check the level of PERC in the air. California became the first state in the nation to ban PERC, calling it a public health threat. They ordered it phased out of dry cleaners over the next 15 years.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Web site, “Breathing PERC for short periods of time can adversely affect the human nervous system. Effects range from dizziness, fatigue, headaches, and sweating, to incoordination and unconsciousness. Contact with PERC vapor irritates the skin, eyes, nose, and throat. These effects are not likely to occur at levels of PERC that are normally found in the environment. Breathing PERC over longer periods of time can cause liver and kidney damage in humans. Workers repeatedly exposed to large amounts of PERC in air can also experience memory loss and confusion. Laboratory studies show that PERC causes kidney and liver damage and cancer in animals exposed repeatedly by inhalation and by mouth. Repeat exposure to large amounts of PERC in air may likewise cause cancer in humans.”

You may have gotten a whiff of PERC’s strong, fresh scent at your cleaners but, once PERC evaporates into the air, you can’t always smell it. So, be aware of what you may be breathing in.

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