From 220 million lb in 1990, the dry cleaning industry last year consumed only 37 million lb of perc. “It's mostly because of better engineering practices and new equipment available to dry cleaners,” Hickman says. Dow, for example, promotes the use of small-volume returnable containers and closed-loop delivery systems to reduce spills and fugitive vapors.

Despite these efforts, though, perc is under a regulatory cloud, with the sharpest scrutiny coming, not surprisingly, from California.

As of Jan. 1, 2003, according to a rule enacted three years ago by the Los Angeles-area South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), new dry cleaning facilities cannot install perc systems, and existing facilities cannot install additional ones. The law also calls for a total ban on perc-based dry cleaning in the region by the end of 2020.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is now in the process of finishing a statewide review of perc in dry cleaning. “Based on what I......

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Title: Chemistry
Approximate Word Count: 904
Approximate Pages: 4 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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