Why Choose a Aqua Wash(Wet-Cleaning) over Dry Cleaning?

Mama Jo Launderette - Premium Store

The dominant chemical used by the dry-cleaning industry to clean our garments is perchloroethylene which is also known as PERC and tetrachloroethylene. PERC is a colorless, nonflammable liquid. The largest user of PERC is the dry cleaning industry. It accounts for 80% to 85% of all dry cleaning fluid used.

Exposure to perchloroethylene can occur in the workplace or in the environment following releases to air, water, land, or groundwater. Exposure can also occur when people:

  • Use products containing PERC
  • Spend time in dry cleaning facilities that use PERC
  • Live above or adjacent to these dry cleaning facilities, or
  • Bring dry cleaned garments into their home.

PERC enters the body when breathed in with contaminated air or when consumed with contaminated food or water. It is less likely to be absorbed through skin contact. Once in the body PERC can remain, stored in fat tissue.”

Research has shown short term exposure to PERC causes neurological, kidney and liver damage. Long term exposure can cause spontaneous abortions and leukemia. PERC has also been found in the breast milk of nursing mothers at concentrations higher than those found in the blood. This is important and bears repeating because once PERC is in the body it can remain, stored in fat tissue. When those fats are broken down for nursing mothers to feed their babies, the PERC found in those tissues is fed directly from the mother into the baby. We can be exposed to PERC as easily as through the air we breathe and the water we drink. PERC is dangerous to our environment, to animals, to adults and to children.

The reason to choose a wet-cleaning system over dry-cleaning is obvious. It’s safer. For you, for me, for our children and the environment. Perchloroethylene is a toxic substance. It is dangerous to human and animal health and it harms the very environment we depend upon.

Wet cleaning has been regarded as the safest professional garment cleaning method by the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), attributed to the fact that it is a water-based cleaning system that does not involve the use of any hazardous chemical.

These computer-controlled machines ensures that the fabric is not damaged during the cleaning process. These wet cleaning machines can purportedly clean most of “dry clean only” garments safely (I.E. tailored woolens, suede, leather, silks, rayons and etc).