WWWTP?: Pasadena Edition
The dry-cleaning joint on the corner of California and Fair Oaks has always bothered me:
Yes! We are NON-TOXIC!!!!
And…ummm…please ignore the fat number 2 on the blue sector of the little fire diamond over there.
I suppose this raises the question of what should be considered “non-toxic”. The fire diamond is generally meant to assist first responders, who are more concerned with the properties of substances in a fire and on acute exposure rather than on long-term exposure. I have no idea what chemicals these cleaners are using to dry clean, but for reference, benzene and dichloromethane are also health #2 by the NFPA 704 standard. I wouldn’t consider those solvents to be “non-toxic” to the point of bragging.
That said, carbon dioxide is also health #2, and its use as a solvent bothers me a lot less than alternatives like tetrachloroethylene.
May 1st, 2011 at 12:36 PM
Maybe it means the people who work there are non-toxic?
May 1st, 2011 at 8:18 PM
I once knew a Prof. who successfully founded, operated, then sold a chain of dry cleaners that ran on supercritical CO2. Perhaps it’s that? Although traditional dry cleaning still seems to rely heavily on DCM, xylenes, etc. Always makes me wonder what they do with their waste streams…
May 2nd, 2011 at 12:07 AM
@See Ar Oh: Wasn’t that Joe DeSimone?
May 2nd, 2011 at 6:28 PM
SAO: They’re supposed to dispose of it properly. I’m guessing that the vapor pressure of perchloroethylene is unusually high at these small places.
May 3rd, 2011 at 4:08 PM
The only self-cleaning location I ever had to use in my life was a little washing salon at the botanical garden in Berlin. Now, it does not exist anymore, of course.
May 3rd, 2011 at 4:21 PM
I yesterday saw in German TV an edition on flesh in supermarkets that had been packed under protective gas atomsphere. This meant, they said, 70% oxygen, and 30 % CO2. Why this ? Because flesh without oxygen rusts.
The TV star cook tested it with meat from the local supermarket, and could not, statistically, distinguish it from PB meat.
It was not read enough, after opening.
May 3rd, 2011 at 4:44 PM
you are not even non-toxic, you are deadly ?
May 3rd, 2011 at 11:17 PM
@excimer – You win. Your prize is in the mail, but we sent it w/o insurance…
@Chemjobber – I always thought the sewer was handy for halogenated organics….wait, we weren’t supposed to be doing that? Uh-oh.
May 6th, 2011 at 12:05 PM
[...] Chembark on the juxtaposition of “nontoxic” and fire diamond labeling in a drycleaner’s window [...]
May 18th, 2011 at 7:27 AM
You should also check out the nail salons. The air reeks of all kinds of solvents, especially acetone. I have yet to find out what the air standards are, but I’m guessing the salons aren’t that healthy to be in.
May 23rd, 2011 at 1:12 PM
It’d be kind of funny if the nail ladies had to switch from dust masks to half-face respirators with organic vapor cartridges.
May 24th, 2011 at 10:33 AM
“You are dissatisfied with your nails? Pray I do not alter them further.”
May 28th, 2011 at 8:05 AM
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/05/26/science.1202098.full.pdf
September 29th, 2011 at 2:45 AM
[...] might not mesh with what some other people classify as ”organic”, but if ambiguous advertising is what it takes nowadays for dry cleaners to stay in business, then I’m all for [...]