This solvent has been named for years as a toxin liable to cause brain damage. It has been used as a dry cleaning agent and also for degreasing.
Do a search on "dry cleaning" trichlorethylene and Parkinson's, and you get over 1000 references. typical is
http://www.nntpnews.net/f5025/parkin...amage-3697352/
Parkinson; Neurotoxins; Mito Damage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neurotoxins such as Trichloroethylene, MPTP and some pesticides, as a
risk factor for parkinsonism.
From wiki: Trichloroethylene is used extensively in industry and the
military and is a common environmental contaminant. Trichloroethylene
was used from 1930s to 1960s as a anesthetic and analgesic in millions
of patients. When it was first widely produced in the 1920s, its major
use was to extract vegetable oils from plant materials such as soy,
coconut, and palm. Other uses in the food industry included coffee
decaffeination and the preparation of flavoring extracts from hops and
spices. It was also used as a dry cleaning solvent until 1950s.
Trichloroethylene has been widely used as a degreaser for metal parts.
It is a common contaminant in soil and groundwater at hundreds of
waste sites across the United States. TCE was first detected in
groundwater in 1977, and is one of the most frequently detected
contaminants in groundwater in the U.S. Based on available federal and
state surveys, between 9% to 34% of the drinking water supply sources
tested in the U.S. may have some TCE contamination. For over twenty
years of operation, the US-based multinational Radio Company of
America (RCA) had been pouring toxic wastewater into a well in its
Taoyuan, Taiwan facility. High levels of TCE tetrachloroethylene (PCE)
can be found in groundwater drawn as far as two kilometers from the
site. An organization of former RCA employees reports 1375 cancer
cases, 216 cancer deaths, and 102 cases of various tumors among its
members. Until recent years, the US Agency for Toxic Substances and
Disease Registry (ATSDR) contended that trichloroethylene had little-
to-no carcinogenic potential.
Ron