As the national and international association for drycleaners, launderers and other clothes-care specialists, I would like to clarify information in your story "Dry Cleaners' New Wrinkle: Going Green," (Marketplace, June 3).
The article states that "the Environmental Protection Agency concluded that perc was a 'probable human carcinogen.' " In fact, the U.S. EPA does not designate perchloroethylene as a probable carcinogen. We believe you were misled by an EPA source who had an ax to grind. Unfortunately, this situation has occurred previously with our industry and with others, and will probably continue to happen until the EPA develops a mechanism to deal with the problem.
The quote attributed to me in the article--from a speech I recently delivered--has lost the context of my original talk, in which I concluded that "If the industry can realistically achieve compliance with future regulations, then perc will continue to be the predominant solvent in our industry for many years." For the record, we believe that perc is unlikely to be a human carcinogen, and project that the industry will be able realistically to comply with future regulations.
Our industry is evaluating other drycleaning and wetcleaning systems in search of methods that might be "greener" and that will safely handle clothes. It is this evaluation of alternative methods that caused me to state that I expect that "we will continue to see a slow decline in the number of perc drycleaning plants."
William E. Fisher
Chief Executive Officer
International Fabricare Institute
Silver Spring, Md.
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