Dry cleaning does carry real health risks, and nearly all of them trace back to a single chemical: perchloroethylene, commonly called PERC or PCE. PERC is the most common solvent used for dry cleaning in the United States, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified it as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”1PubMed Central. Perchloroethylene and Dry Cleaning: It’s Time to Move the Industry to Safer Alternatives The distinction that matters, though, is between the people who work with PERC every day and the people who occasionally pick up a bag of freshly cleaned clothes. The risks are not the same for both groups, and understanding where you fall on that spectrum changes what you should actually worry about.
What PERC Does to the Body
PERC is a volatile organic compound, meaning it evaporates readily at room temperature and enters your body primarily through inhalation. Once inhaled, it crosses into your bloodstream and reaches organs throughout the body. The U.S. EPA identified the central nervous system, kidneys, liver, immune system, and reproductive system as target organs of PERC toxicity. Of these, the nervous system appears to be the most sensitive: neurological effects show up at lower PERC concentrations than other health problems do.2PubMed Central. Human Health Effects of Tetrachloroethylene: Key Findings and Scientific Issues
At high and sustained exposure levels, the damage can go deeper. In animal studies, prolonged exposure reduced brain cell markers in the frontal cerebral cortex and brainstem, suggesting actual loss of brain cells and disruption of the structural proteins that keep nerve and support cells functioning normally.3PubMed. Perchloroethylene-induced reduction in glial and neuronal cell marker proteins in rat brain Those are laboratory conditions with concentrations far above what a consumer would encounter, but they illustrate why chronic occupational exposure is taken seriously by public health agencies.
Cancer Risks for Dry Cleaning Workers
The cancer evidence is strongest for people who work in dry cleaning shops, particularly machine operators who load and unload garments and handle the solvent directly. A meta-analysis of dry-cleaning-worker studies found that employment as a dry cleaner was associated with roughly a 50 percent increase in bladder cancer risk, with some evidence of a dose-response relationship, meaning more exposure corresponded to higher risk.4Environmental Health Perspectives. Tetrachloroethylene Exposure and Bladder Cancer Risk: A Meta-Analysis of Dry-Cleaning-Worker Studies
Bladder cancer is not the only concern. A long-term follow-up study of dry cleaners found dose-response patterns for kidney cancer as well, with workers in the highest exposure category showing dramatically elevated mortality. The same study found that high PERC exposure was linked to increased deaths from heart disease and from cancers of the blood and lymphatic system.5PubMed Central. Extended mortality follow-up in a cohort of dry cleaners A separate cohort study reported that overall cancer deaths were about 22 percent higher than expected among dry cleaning workers, with excesses in esophageal cancer, lung cancer, and tongue cancer. That same study also found that hypertensive kidney disease leading to end-stage renal failure was roughly twice as common in the cohort as in the general population.6Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Mortality and end-stage renal disease incidence among dry cleaning workers
A scoping review of the dry cleaning industry confirmed that DNA damage shows up even in workers whose exposure falls below official occupational limits. Biomarker studies found increased micronuclei frequency, a measure of chromosomal damage, in dry cleaners compared to unexposed workers.7PubMed Central. Occupational exposures and cancer risk in commercial laundry and dry cleaning industries: a scoping review That finding is worth noting because it suggests the current workplace exposure limits may not fully protect workers from early cellular harm.
Reproductive Health Concerns
Women who work in dry cleaning shops during pregnancy face a higher risk of miscarriage. One study found that spontaneous abortion rates were lowest among pregnancies with no dry cleaning or laundry exposure, higher among those involving laundry work, and higher still among those involving dry cleaning work. Women who worked as machine operators, the role with the most direct solvent contact, had a more than 50 percent greater risk of miscarriage compared to non-operators.8PubMed Central. Spontaneous abortion in dry cleaning workers potentially exposed to perchloroethylene An earlier study reported an even stronger association, finding that PERC exposure was linked to a roughly 3.6-fold increase in spontaneous abortions.9PubMed Central. Spontaneous abortions and congenital malformations among women exposed to tetrachloroethylene in dry cleaning
These figures apply to women handling the solvent routinely in a workplace setting, not to customers who wear dry-cleaned clothes. But they underscore why the push to move the industry away from PERC has gained urgency.
How Much PERC Reaches You as a Customer
If you are not working in a dry cleaning shop, your PERC exposure is far lower, but it is not zero. Freshly dry-cleaned clothes off-gas PERC into the air of your home. Chamber and test-house studies have shown that bringing freshly cleaned garments indoors causes measurable increases in PERC concentrations, and that “airing out” clothes for a few hours is not enough to meaningfully reduce emissions.10Atmospheric Environment. Part A. General Topics. Emissions of perchloroethylene from dry cleaned fabrics
How you handle the clothes when you get them home makes a surprising difference. Monitoring inside residences found that when people removed the plastic bag before putting clothes in a wardrobe, PERC levels showed a clear decline over subsequent days. When people left the bag on, concentrations actually rose for the first few days before beginning to fall, because the bag initially trapped the solvent and then slowly released it. In a poorly ventilated apartment where windows were rarely opened, PERC levels climbed as high as 494 micrograms per cubic meter. In homes with more frequent window opening, levels ranged from about 1 to 29 micrograms per cubic meter, depending on how many dry-cleaned items were stored.11Building and Environment. Indoor perchloroethylene accumulation from dry cleaned clothing on residential premises
The practical takeaway: remove the plastic bag as soon as you get clothes home, and let them hang in a well-ventilated space, ideally near an open window or outdoors, for at least a couple of days before moving them into a closet. That will not eliminate every trace of PERC, but it reduces the peak indoor concentration considerably.
Living Near or Above a Dry Cleaner
The customer exposure story gets more serious if you live in the same building as a dry cleaning shop, or in an adjacent one. This is common in dense cities where dry cleaners occupy ground-floor commercial spaces beneath residential apartments. A New York City study found that PERC concentrations in apartments located in buildings housing dry cleaning shops averaged about 2.0 milligrams per cubic meter, compared to less than 0.07 milligrams per cubic meter in control residences. The levels stayed elevated even on weekends, when the shops were closed.12PubMed. Factors influencing tetrachloroethylene concentrations in residences above dry-cleaning establishments
Researchers have measured PERC in the blood and breath of adults and children living in these buildings, confirming that the indoor air contamination translates into real body burdens.13PubMed. Socioeconomic disparities in indoor air, breath, and blood perchloroethylene level among adult and child residents of buildings with or without a dry cleaner Living near a dry cleaning facility has been shown to increase PERC exposure not just in the building where the shop operates, but in nearby buildings as well.14PubMed Central. Association between residential proximity to PERC dry cleaning establishments and kidney cancer in New York City
For residents in these situations, the exposure is not occasional contact with freshly cleaned clothes. It is chronic, low-level inhalation that can persist for years. That puts residential neighbors closer to the occupational end of the risk spectrum than the typical customer end.
Who Bears the Burden Unequally
The risks from living near dry cleaners do not fall evenly across the population. A study of residential buildings with dry cleaners in New York City found that mean indoor PERC levels in minority neighborhoods were about four times higher than in non-minority neighborhoods. In low-income neighborhoods, the levels were more than ten times higher than in higher-income areas. Apartments on the lower floors of buildings in minority neighborhoods were nearly seven times more likely to have PERC concentrations exceeding 100 micrograms per cubic meter.15PubMed Central. Tetrachloroethylene (PCE, Perc) levels in residential dry cleaner buildings in diverse communities in New York City
The reasons are partly structural. In lower-income urban areas, older buildings with less effective ventilation systems are more common, and dry cleaning shops are more likely to share space with residential units. The result is that the health consequences of PERC use in dry cleaning concentrate disproportionately among communities that already face higher environmental health burdens.
What Happens When PERC Gets Into the Ground
The health risks from PERC extend beyond air. When dry cleaners spill solvents, dispose of waste improperly, or when aging equipment leaks, PERC can seep into soil and groundwater. Because it is denser than water and does not break down quickly in the environment, it can persist underground for decades.16Remediation Journal. Natural attenuation of chlorinated solvent plumes at Texas dry cleaners Former dry cleaning sites are among the most common sources of chlorinated solvent contamination in groundwater, and cleaning up these plumes is expensive and slow. If you are buying or renting property that was formerly a dry cleaning shop, or adjacent to one, this is worth investigating.
Alternatives to PERC and How They Compare
The dry cleaning industry has not stood still on this. Several alternative solvents and methods have emerged, each with a different risk profile.
- Hydrocarbon solvents: These petroleum-based alternatives are now widely used. Airborne concentrations during use have been measured well below occupational exposure limits, though workers can still absorb them through skin contact. Hydrocarbon solvents generally have few serious toxic effects at normal workplace levels, though they can irritate the lungs and eyes at high concentrations and cause pneumonia if aspirated.17PubMed Central. Occupational exposures to new dry cleaning solvents: High-flashpoint hydrocarbons and butylal18PubMed. Characterization of the toxicological hazards of hydrocarbon solvents
- GreenEarth (siloxane D5): A silicone-based solvent marketed as a gentler option. In rodent studies, mammalian toxicity was not strongly evident except for rare uterine tumors under prolonged chronic exposure, and the relevance of those findings to humans remains unclear.19PubMed. Cyclic volatile methyl siloxanes (D4, D5, and D6) as the emerging pollutants in environment: environmental distribution, fate, and toxicological assessments It does raise environmental questions, though: soil studies have found that D5 can be toxic to certain plant and invertebrate species.20PubMed. Ecotoxicity of siloxane D5 in soil
- Liquid carbon dioxide: COâ‚‚ cleaning uses pressurized carbon dioxide as a solvent. It is attractive from a health and safety standpoint because the COâ‚‚ simply evaporates into the air after use, leaving no chemical residue on garments or in the workplace.21Industrial Chemistry Library. Dry-cleaning with liquid carbon dioxide The technology has also proven effective at removing stubborn contaminants like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from heavily soiled materials.22Safety and Fire Technology. Cleaning and Decontamination of Firefighters’ Protective Clothing in Liquid Carbon Dioxide (LCOâ‚‚) – Literature Review and Conclusions for National Practice The downside is that COâ‚‚ machines require high-pressure equipment, making them expensive to install.
- Professional wet cleaning: Water-based cleaning using specialized detergents, computer-controlled washers, and careful drying has emerged as the most health-friendly alternative. Assessments comparing wet cleaning to traditional dry cleaning have concluded that water-based methods are preferable from both a human health and environmental standpoint.23Journal of Cleaner Production. Comparative assessment of wet and dry garment cleaning Part 1. Environmental and human health assessment The limitation is that some fabrics, particularly heavily structured garments or very delicate textiles, may not respond as well to water-based methods as to solvent cleaning.
A review of apparel cleaning methods identified all of these, along with acetal, as less damaging substitutes for PERC, with professional wet cleaning being the most sustainable option overall.24PubMed. Towards sustainable and safe apparel cleaning methods: A review
How to Tell What Your Dry Cleaner Uses
Most dry cleaners will tell you what solvent they use if you ask, and many that have moved away from PERC advertise it. Look for terms like “organic dry cleaning” (which usually means hydrocarbon solvents, not organic in the food-label sense), “GreenEarth,” “COâ‚‚ cleaning,” or “wet cleaning.” If the shop uses PERC, you may smell a faintly sweet, chemical odor on your clothes when you pick them up. Shops that use newer solvents or wet cleaning typically leave little or no chemical smell.
In California, PERC has been phased out entirely from dry cleaning operations, with a complete ban taking effect in recent years. Several other states and cities have adopted or are considering similar restrictions. If you live in a jurisdiction that has phased out PERC, your local cleaner is already using one of the alternatives described above, whether or not they advertise it.
The Dose Question and Why Thresholds Matter
A reasonable question at this point is whether there is a level of PERC below which it simply does not cause harm. Early pharmacokinetic research suggested something along those lines. Studies in mice and rats found that PERC’s initial metabolism acts as an activation step, converting the solvent into reactive molecules that bind to liver DNA and proteins. At high doses, this triggers repeated tissue damage and cell turnover, which in susceptible mice led to liver tumors over a lifetime. But the researchers concluded that this mechanism depends on doses high enough to actually injure tissue. Levels that do not produce organ damage, the reasoning goes, would not carry a cancer risk.25Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology. The pharmacokinetics and macromolecular interactions of perchloroethylene in mice and rats as related to oncogenicity
That argument has limits, though. The DNA damage found in dry cleaning workers exposed below occupational limits complicates the idea of a clean threshold.7PubMed Central. Occupational exposures and cancer risk in commercial laundry and dry cleaning industries: a scoping review And for residents living above dry cleaners, exposure is not a one-time event but a years-long accumulation. Whether there is a safe level probably depends on the specific health outcome, how long you are exposed, and individual susceptibility. For an occasional customer picking up a suit once a month, the exposure is brief and low. For a worker loading machines eight hours a day, or a family living above a PERC shop in a poorly ventilated building, the calculation is very different.
Clothing as a Chemical Delivery System
PERC is not the only chemical that can reach you through clothing. Research on clothing-mediated exposures more broadly has found that garments can carry chemicals from manufacturing (dyes, flame retardants, finishing agents) as well as substances that adhere during use and care, including dry cleaning solvents. While clothing often acts as a physical barrier against environmental exposures, in certain circumstances it flips the equation and becomes a source of chemical contact.26PubMed Central. Clothing-Mediated Exposures to Chemicals and Particles
This broader framing is useful because it puts dry cleaning in context. The solvent residue on a freshly dry-cleaned blouse is one of many chemical pathways that clothing creates. Washing new clothes before wearing them, choosing cleaners that use water-based or COâ‚‚ methods, and ventilating freshly cleaned garments are all practical ways to reduce total chemical contact from your wardrobe. None of these steps requires dramatic changes to your routine, and for the typical consumer, they are more than sufficient to keep risks low.