Dry-cleaning fluid
Tetrachloroethylene is a manufactured chemical compound that is widely used for the dry cleaning of fabrics (often commonly called dry-cleaning fluid) and for metal-degreasing. It is also used to make other chemicals and is used in some consumer products.
Other names for tetrachloroethylene include perchloroethylene, perc, PCE, and tetrachloroethene. It is a nonflammable liquid at room temperature. It evaporates easily into the air and has a sharp, sweet odor. Most people can smell tetrachloroethylene when it is present in the air at a concentration of 1 part per million (1 ppm), although some can smell it at even lower levels.
Like many chlorinated hydrocarbons, tetrachloroethylene is a central nervous system depressant, and inhaling its vapors (particularly in closed, poorly ventilated areas) can cause dizziness, headache, sleepiness, confusion, nausea, difficulty in speaking and walking, unconsciousness, and death.
After repeated or extended skin contact, tetrachloroethylene may dissolve fats from the skin, resulting in severe skin irritation in work environments where people have been exposed to high concentrations.
Tetrachloroethylene is a common soil contaminant. Such contamination most often results from spillage, overfilling, or sewer leakage at commercial dry cleaning facilities. Because of the mobility of PCE in groundwater, its toxicity at low levels, and its density (which causes it to sink below the water table), cleanup activities tend to be especially problematic compared to cleanups of oil spills.
In industry, most workers are exposed to levels lower than those causing obvious nervous system effects. The health effects of tetrachloroethylene at levels typically encountered in occupational or environmental exposures have not been well established
