Millions of New Yorkers live within a block of dangerous neighbors: dry cleaners that use a stain remover that has been linked to kidney cancer.
Perchloroethylene, or perc, a solvent used by many dry-cleaning shops, gives off vapors that have been deemed “likely carcinogenic” by the Environmental Protection Agency.
“It’s very insidious. People . . . realize they are being exposed to perc,” Judith Schreiber, former chief scientist at the state attorney general’s Environmental Protection Bureau, tells the latest Crain’s New York Business.
A 2009 study showed that 2.3 million New Yorkers live or work within 650 feet of dry cleaners.