Did you know that the word Dry Cleaning is a misnomer and isn’t actually true?
For most dry cleaning isn’t dry at all – neither is it clean as well.
Instead of water, professional cleaning processes use a liquid solvent to dissolve stains on garments. This typically involves a chemical known as perc that, while highly effective at getting scuff marks out of clothing, is also a known health and environmental hazard.
Several health organizaions have already classified perc as a toxin, but it’s still widely used across the industry with the Environment Protection Agency or EPA classifying perc as a “likely human carcinogen”, meaning that prolonged exposure to the chemical has been linked to an increased risk of cancer.
Perchloroethylene, also known as tetrachloroethylene, PCE or perc for short, is a chlorinated hydrocarbon used primarily by the dry cleaning industry, but it’s also used as a metal degreaser in industrial cleaning.
In an article from cbsnews.com earlier this year relates this story about Mori Mickelson and her husband, Danny O’Brien a couple that got sicker the more they stayed inside their New York City apartment.
“I would get dizzy, I would get headaches, just feel nauseous,” Mickelson told Smith.
“I couldn’t focus. Basically, my mind was floating away on me,” O’Brien says.
It turned out, Smith reports, that the air in their apartment was contaminated with a toxic solvent leaking from the dry cleaner downstairs.
It’s called perchloroethylene, or PERC, and it’s used by three out of four dry cleaners nationwide.
The article furthers; ” Judith Schreiber, Ph.D., the chief scientist of environmental protection for the New York Attorney General’s Office, says she “would classify PERC as a neurotoxin.”Schreiber says dry cleaners love PERC because it washes delicate fabrics without shrinking them or causing fading.
But, too often, PERC vapors can leak into nearby residences and offices, and Schreiber says long-term exposure can cause serious harm.”You’re at risk for neurological effects, liver and kidney illness, and increased cancer risk,” she says. Even the World Health Organization says PERC is a “probable human carcinogen.”
Its a good thing that there’s finally an alternative to dry cleaning- a new way to wash even the most delicate and intricate pieces of clothing.
Its called the Electrolux Professional: New lagoon Advanced Care that establishes a new era for Textile Care
Electrolux Professional launches lagoon Advanced Care system: delicate on fabrics, gentle on the environment, and a game changer for the business, making it possible to operate wet-cleaning with the same process time, productivity and seamless handling of dry cleaning.
Electrolux Professional’s lagoon- the first professional wet-cleaning system to have been endorsed by The Woolmark Company as suitable for the cleaning of delicate wool garments labelled for dry-clean only – is entering a new era with its Advanced Care version.
Fast, easy and green, lagoon Advanced Care represents avant-garde professional wet-cleaning. Being a water-based cleaning technique, it operates with the simplicity of solvent-based cleaning processes but in an eco-friendly way.
For many businesses, both large and small, the availability of a water-based solution, capable of delivering quality and productivity results in an eco-friendly way, has been a long desired dream that now comes true.
A real game changer: clean well and easy, grow the business, and be green
The perfect combination of specifically designed wet-cleaning machines (different capacities provide maximum flexibility and tailor multiple market needs), a new generation of detergents and dedicated programs ensures effective cleaning and allows garments to fully dry in the dryer, with no hanging dry time needed to relax the fibers, and minimal finishing required.
As water is the solvent in the process, no toxic substances are used in the procedure, making it environmentally friendly while the shorter process time guarantees faster and more efficient service.
“Customers have already testified their excitement for the upcoming change”, says Paolo Schira, Global Segments Director Business Unit Laundry at Electrolux Professional.”The new lagoon® Advanced Care is designed to meet the specific needs of Cleaning Shops, as well as Resident Care Homes and Hotels. It is not only a unique system which will lead the way to an innovative approach to wet-cleaning, but also an amazingly flexible solution, offering two capacity packages to tailor to different projects, with the option of expanding at a later date: the Essential set can easily complements any existing dry-cleaning operation, while the Absolute set is ideal to replace a 15 kg dry-cleaning business”.
