What is Dry Cleaning? In the early 1800s, a Frenchman named Jean Baptiste Jolly accidentally spilled some kerosene onto a stained tablecloth.To his surprise, he found that the kerosene removed the stains. Jolly used this discovery to open the first dry-cleaning store in Paris in the 1840s, and an industry of dangerous cleaning solvents was born.
There is nothing dry about dry cleaning.

The process is called ‘dry cleaning’ because the cleaning solvent is not water soluble. In other words, dry cleaning solvent doesn’t dissolve in water and it evaporates fast, like nail polish remover. Cleaners treat the spots on your clothing by hand first, then place it into the machine. To remove stains, dry cleaning machines agitate the clothing like washing machines do. Toward the end of the cycle, the solvent drains and the tub spins, heading into a dry cycle. The clothes emerge dry, and free of your odor… but not the solvent’s. Also, many dry cleaners reuse the cleaning solvents over, and over and over to save money. Up to hundreds of loads! This means your clothes are being cleaned with solvents that have already cleaned someone else's clothes...yuck!

Today, instead of kerosene, the vast majority of dry cleaners use the chemical solvent perchloroethylene.

 Are Your Uniforms Full of Perchloroethylene? -  What Dry Cleaners Don't Want You to Know.

There are more than 35,000 dry cleaners in the United States, and it's estimated that over 90% of them use perchloroethylene (or PERC, for short) as a solvent in the dry cleaning process. When you drive home after picking up your clothes from the dry cleaners do you sometimes notice a faint chemical smell on the clothes? That's PERC.

PERC is a synthetic, volatile organic compound (VOC) that poses a health risk to humans and a threat to the environment. This strong-smelling liquid solvent is clear and colorless and evaporates into the air. It looks like water, but has a consistency of gasoline. Even minimal contact with PERC can cause adverse health effects on the nervous system that include dizziness, headaches, fatigue, drowsiness, impaired memory, confusion, nausea, sweating, incoordination, skin and respiratory irritation and unconsciousness. Prolonged PERC exposure can cause liver and kidney damage, and cancer. The International Association for Research on Cancer classifies PERC as a probable carcinogen.

PERC can enter the body through drinking water contamination, dermal exposure, or most frequently, inhalation. This is not only a health hazard and environmental justice issue for workers in the dry cleaning business, but for consumers who bring home clothes laden with PERC. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that clothes dry cleaned with PERC can elevate levels of the toxin throughout a home (or school) and especially in the room where the garments are stored. That's because they continue to off-gas PERC into the air. Studies have shown that clothes can emit toxic fumes for two weeks after ordinary dry cleaning . . . in your car, in your closet, on your body. If you can smell the chemical, you are being exposed to its toxic effects. Imagine what that means when we could be talking about 100's of uniforms in a confined area! Dangerous stuff.

PERC is not only hazardous for people who work in dry cleaning shops or bring home dry cleaned clothes; according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), PERC can also get into our air, water, and soil during the cleaning, purification, and waste disposal phases of dry cleaning. Over 750 million gallons of PERC are put into the environment annually in North America, making it our most common groundwater contaminant. And according to California's South Coast Air Quality Management District, people who live near dry cleaners have a higher risk of cancer than those who live near oil refineries or power plants! Many banks now refuse loans for the purchase of land where there once stood a dry cleaning business.

In other words, the dry cleaning process is basically like having a chemical spill on your uniforms. Your kids deserve better than that.

Why do cleaners use this toxic solvent?

PERC has been in use since the 50's because of its non-flammability and stability. It's is a strong degreaser, however it doesn’t do very well with water-soluble stains (most food and drink stains!). Whites take on a greyish hue when washed in PERC, and you’ll often see weird “ghosting” when a cleaner uses dirty PERC – and as stated before, they can reuse the same PERC for hundreds of loads, saving the dry cleaners time and money.

People are just beginning to wake up to these facts. California has now declared PERC a toxic chemical, and it's use will become illegal in that state in 2023.

Do all band uniforms have to be dry cleaned?

Absolutely not! At FJM, we not only invented the fully washable marching band uniform...our Cesario line of uniforms...that's the only kind of uniform we manufacture. With everything you now know about the dry cleaning process, why would you subject your kids to anything but the safest, most environmentally friendly uniforms in the business today? And why subject your program to the high cost of dry cleaning year after year?

Worried about the quality of our washable uniforms? Don't be. At FJM, we warrant our Cesario uniforms for a full 8 years under normal conditions of use. And FJM uniforms are typically half the cost of the overpriced, uncomfortable and old fashioned wool uniforms. That's why the top, most athletic drum corps and marching bands in the country are dedicated FJM clients. Those groups don't get to be that good by accident. They make the best choices for their programs, and their students...that's why time after time, they choose FJM.

Give us a call today, we would be happy to assist you with your future uniforms needs.