Think you’re just picking up clean, fresh clothes from your dry cleaner - wrong. The reality of going to a conventional dry cleaner is that could be picking up more than you bargained for.
Conventional dry cleaners submerge garments in the chemical solvent Perchloroethylene (Perc) in the cleaning process. Perc is used by most dry cleaners because it is an effective degreasing agent. Whilst Perc works efficiently to clean clothes, removing stains and odours, it leaves behind an odour all of its own – a toxic one.
You’d be familiar with Perc’s distinctive smell often present at your local dry cleaners; the same smell that permeates and nestles in the fibres of your clothes. This smell, which you have come to associate with ‘freshly’ dry cleaned clothes, could actually be harmful to your health.
Perc is a suspected carcinogen and is heavily regulated because of its toxicity levels. It has been linked with cervical, oesophageal and bladder cancer, to name a few. It has been detected in the breast milk of nursing mothers who have visited or live near dry cleaners. Plus it can aggravate the condition of asthmatics and people with other allergies.
Perc is also harmful to the environment. Perc had already been absorbed into our atmosphere, soil deposits and water supplies before its environmental impact was realised. Now, strict guidelines are in place for the disposal of Perc waste, which is considered hazardous.
Simply, if you can smell your dry cleaning, it could be killing you.
But remember: there is a healthy alternative and that’s daisy. Odourless and free from harmful toxins, so look after your health, the environment and make the change today to daisy.
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