Tales of Kieran: The occupational physician’s odyssey 1—Solvents

In Tales of Kieran: The occupational physician’s odyssey 1: Solvents J.A. Hunter briefly explores the humorous encounters with his occupational physician friend Kieran. This article recounts Kieran’s involvement in a legal case about dry-cleaning solvents and dementia.

Use of 1-bromopropane (N-propyl bromide) in dry cleaning is rare and rapidly declining toward obsolescence

Ten years ago, the Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance (HSIA) and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation petitioned the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to classify 1-bromopropane (1-BP) as a hazardous air pollutant (HAP), the first such classification of a chemical since 1990. The USEPA plans to classify 1-BP as a HAP. One of the putative exposures supporting HAP classification is 1-BP-based dry cleaning solvents. Only two 1-BP-based dry cleaning solvents have ever been marketed domestically, i.e. the dominant market share product DrySolv® (DrySolv) and less commonly used FabrisolvTM XL (Fabrisolv). The use of 1-BP-based dry cleaning solvents has been declining for several years. Fabrisolv is no longer marketed as a dry cleaning agent. In the first half of 2020, less than 1,600 pounds of DrySolv have been sold for the remaining six dedicated dry cleaning machines still in operation in the United States. It is expected that the number of dedicated DrySolv dry cleaning machines in operation will be reduced to three by the end of 2020. In addition, no 1-BP-based spot cleaner has ever been marketed in the United States. USEPA currently classifies 187 chemicals as HAPs, with a subset of 30 HAPS classified as urban air toxics. Dry cleaning is considered to be one of the 68 “area sources” that contribute to sub-classification of 1-BP as an urban air toxic. In the near future, 1-BP-based products will not be employed in the dry cleaning industry.