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Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease

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Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. This is why most dry cleaners won't accept bedding. It's considered too high-contact. (If they do accept it, they wash it with something other than TCE) Source: a college friend of mine, years ago, who worked as a dry cleaner. After talking to her, I've never used one since.

> After talking to her, I've never used one since. What do we do about our formal wear then?

That's a great question that is entirely fabric-dependent.

If your formalwear is wool (for example, a tuxedo or blazer) you'd probably want to swap it out for a version of the garment which is made from Superwash wool, which is machine-washable. (Or your choice of alternative fabric.) Creating superwash wool is still a pretty chemically-intensive process, but that might not be forever: https://www.moderndailyknitting.com/community/superwash-part... It should at least cut down on your TCE exposure.

Silk is trickier -- if you wet it, you have to take great care to dry it without overheating it, while at the same time getting it to dry evenly, so you don't get watermarks on the fabric. It's doable, but it's a total PITA. The best strategy here, for me, has been to wash my silk blouses very rarely, and with a great deal of care, and tumble-dry low. I also use the 'vodka trick' I picked up working in the backroom of a theatrical costume company, many years ago -- get a bottle of cheap vodka, pour it into spritz bottle (one with a fine-mist setting -- the kind at beauty stores work great) and turn the garment inside-out; hit the pits, etc. It's safe for silk, fur, and other delicate fabrics.

If you're going to be wearing silk, do it in winter or in air conditioning :)

Fur -- well, you wouldn't have been dry-cleaning fur anyway, right? right?? This is a whole chapter on its own. (The vodka trick works tho)

Finally, there are also lots of wonderful new machine-washable fibres on the market -- tencel, etc. -- that may be suitable for formalwear.

But putting formalwear aside, the biggest problem I see is down-filled jackets and duvets. I have literally no good ideas here, other than 'wash very rarely and tumble dry low, low low'

Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease

#262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if one includes the "/s" then they get a lot of people arguing that profit is why companies exist.

The whole point of sarcasm is that people misunderstand causing funny situations. If you are going to signal it with eg. /s you may as well just say what you mean.

I've just started reading Flowers for Algernon, highly recommended.

Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease

#263
post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> capturing and recycling TCE after use is fairly expensive, and since it was cheaper to buy new TCE, manufacturers would just dump their dirty used TCE, creating superfund sites etc. This isn't a problem, us future generations can just engineer our way out of it at a cheaper cost than it would have been to deal with it in the first place. /s - For sarcasm, and sorry.

Ha. "Let's break all these cups and throw em in a hole! Future people will use something something something tech and put them back together good as new." People are constantly assuming magical future entropy-undoers to justify their breaking and ruining things today.

I had a family member who used to educate people on recycling. Growing up it was a major fact that styrofoam was a forever material that would never biodegrade and couldn't be recycled. Today there are methods to recycle styrofoam (albeit just like all recycling it takes people and resources to take the effort to do it, which is the real barrier). I don't think being reckless with our future is a good idea. But history is full of past norms being changed by new scientific discoveries.

Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. This is why most dry cleaners won't accept bedding. It's considered too high-contact. (If they do accept it, they wash it with something other than TCE) Source: a college friend of mine, years ago, who worked as a dry cleaner. After talking to her, I've never used one since.

> After talking to her, I've never used one since. What do we do about our formal wear then?

Don't wash (dryclean) it or at least do it super infrequently.

I find the jacket and pants of a suit don't get very dirty if you just wear them at work, and dry cleaning ruins them anyway. I've gone many months of regular wear, probably more than a year in some cases without washing. You can spot-clean if you spill something on it.

Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. This is why most dry cleaners won't accept bedding. It's considered too high-contact. (If they do accept it, they wash it with something other than TCE) Source: a college friend of mine, years ago, who worked as a dry cleaner. After talking to her, I've never used one since.

> After talking to her, I've never used one since. What do we do about our formal wear then?

Liquid CO2 dry cleaning?

Supposedly wool doesn't shrink in cold water on gentle and air-dried.

Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease

#266
post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its certainly in the soil and groundwater - but why would it be in the air?

It's no longer uncommon to (carbon) filter drinking water at the tap or in your fridge, which then makes a hot shower likely a major avenue into your body by way of your lungs unless you filter water for the whole house plumbing system.

There are shower heads that can be installed with carbon filters. Can be done with a wrench. No plumber required.

Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease

#267
post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha. "Let's break all these cups and throw em in a hole! Future people will use something something something tech and put them back together good as new." People are constantly assuming magical future entropy-undoers to justify their breaking and ruining things today.

I had a family member who used to educate people on recycling. Growing up it was a major fact that styrofoam was a forever material that would never biodegrade and couldn't be recycled. Today there are methods to recycle styrofoam (albeit just like all recycling it takes people and resources to take the effort to do it, which is the real barrier). I don't think being reckless with our future is a good idea. But histo…

I've read that McDonald's phase out of its styrofoam containers in 1990 ironically prevented the recycling of a lot of styrofoam. Businesses were in the process of setting up to recycle styrofoam but the removal of such a huge source of used styrofoam eliminated their potential profitability.

Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease

#268
There was a spate of recreational sniffing of trichlorethylene when it was a common industrial solvent -later it was banned, but persists in use under well controlled industrial uses - removing caffeine was one, there were many other?. A meta data study might show an 'echo' as people age due to later effects.

https://www.google.com/search?q=sniffing+trichloroethylene&r...

Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> After talking to her, I've never used one since. What do we do about our formal wear then?

That's a great question that is entirely fabric-dependent. If your formalwear is wool (for example, a tuxedo or blazer) you'd probably want to swap it out for a version of the garment which is made from Superwash wool, which is machine-washable. (Or your choice of alternative fabric.) Creating superwash wool is still a pretty chemically-intensive process, but that might not be forever: https://www.moderndailyknitting…

Duvets at least you can buy machine washable covers for.

Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> After talking to her, I've never used one since. What do we do about our formal wear then?

Liquid CO2 dry cleaning? Supposedly wool doesn't shrink in cold water on gentle and air-dried.

Yes, this is good and effective. The oils dissolve and you spin dry, rinse in new liquid CO2 and repeat if needed, just like washing clothes. The CO2 is evaporated and back into the tank - the oil remains and is disposed.

https://blancliving.co/pages/liquid-co2-dry-cleaning

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