EPA Is Reconsidering Dry Cleaners' Use of Cancer-Causing Chemical

EPA Is Reconsidering Dry Cleaners' Use of Cancer-Causing Chemical
by Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 8, 2009; Page A03

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/07/AR2009040703748.html

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The Environmental Protection Agency is reconsidering whether to compel dry cleaners to phase out a cancer-causing chemical used in tens of thousands of operations nationwide, according to court documents filed late last week.

The issue of whether to ban perchloroethylene, a hazardous air pollutant linked to cancer and neurological damage, has been the source of a long-running fight between environmental groups and the federal government. In July 2006, the Bush administration ordered dry cleaners located in residential buildings to phase out the toxic solvent by 2020 but did not impose the same rules on the 28,000 other cleaners that do not operate in such mixed-use buildings. Instead, the EPA required these operators to use devices to detect leaks and to reduce emissions by conducting the wash and dry cycles in the same machine.

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