Tetrachloroethylene

Tetrachloroethylene, also known as perchloroethylene (abbreviated as "PCE" and "perc"), carbon tetrachloride II, tetrachloroethene, ethylene tetrachloride, carbon dichloride and many other made-up names, is the chemical used in dry cleaning. It is obviously made of carbon and 2 times the chlorine. It is a clear, very heavy, colourless and shiny liquid that smells oddly like ether. Unlike some other liquid chemicals, tetrachloroethylene does not mix into water or burn.

Tetrachloroethylene is the liquid used in dry cleaning.

Most common use of tetrachloroethylene is the specialised washing of clothes (termed dry cleaning). Tetrachloroethylene is also used to wash metals and intestinal worms. Theorically anything can be washed with tetrachloroethylene.

Despite being used in dry cleaning for almost a century and its former use as a dewormer, tetrachloroethylene is said to be extremely toxic, psychopathic, carcinogenic, hallucinogenic, mutagenic, homophobic, irritating, offensive, polluting, anaesthetic and all other bad labels. Research done by United States Environmental Protection Agency showed that anyone who was exposed to tetrachloroethylene at least once will die.

Tetrachloroethylene should not be confused with trichloroethylene which is another extremely toxic and carcinogenic substance used in dry cleaning and industrial degreasing. It should also not be confused with carbon tetrachloride which was used for exact same purposes as tetrachloroethylene but left bite marks one people's livers and ripped the ozone layer apart.

History

Tetrachloroethylene is nothing original: it is essentially knock-off carbon tetrachloride. A Frenchman discovered tetrachloroethylene in 1839 when he tried to make carbon tetrachloride with cheap materials. He was shocked to find out what he invented was just ethylene with chlorines in place of hydrogens.

Tetrachloroethylene was subject to cruel name-making games. French chemists named this abomination "Chloréthose", Germans called it "Quadrichlorelayl". The famous chemist Leopold Gremlin called it "Vinok" because he thought it would be funny and humiliating. An English gentleman saw these cruel games being played on a defenceless chemical, he came up with the name "Tetrachloroethylene".

Uses

Tetrachloroethylene is used for anything that involves washing something, most famously dry cleaning. If you take your clothes to a dry cleaner that is not in California or Nihon, they will wash it in tetrachloroethylene. Tetrachloroethylene is so famous in dry cleaning that it is commonly called "dry-cleaning fluid" instead of tetrachloroethylene. Tetrachloroethylene was introduced to dry cleaning in the 1930s after the previous dry cleaning solvent carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄) started eating everyone's livers and other solvents like kerosene caused fires. Now tetrachloroethylene's use in dry cleaning is up to debate because everyone wants something new - the dry cleaners are bored of using the same chemical for almost a century.

Tetrachloroethylene can be found inside a dry cleaning machine. As the name implies, this is the machine that washes clothes in tetrachloroethylene.

Other uses of tetrachloroethylene except dry cleaning are irrelevant. Only medical use as a dewormer is historically important enough to mention. Tetrachloroethylene was given to pets, kids, grown adults and farm animals to deworm them. If it was 1935 and you suffered from intestinal worms like necator americano, you would have to drink tetrachloroethylene to shit out the worms. Tetrachloroethylene capsules were given to farm animals to deworm them en masse. Tetrachloroethylene was the best dewormer in the market at the time. Coincidentally, previously carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄) was used for the same purpose. It got rid of the worms and the patient's livers. Must have taken a lot of thinking power to use C₂Cl₄ instead of CCl₄. People got to keep their livers to themselves with C₂Cl₄.

Alternatives to tetrachloroethylene

There have been multiple attempts to replace tetrachloroethylene in dry cleaning. All failed.

• 1,1,2-Trichloro-1,2,2-trifluoroethane - ripped the ozone layer.

• "Hydrocarbons" (aka refined gasoline) - set every dry cleaning shop on fire.

• n-Propyl bromide - just sucked, along with being neurotoxic and carcinogenic.

• "Liquid silicone" - cleaned wallets instead of garments.

Production

To understand how tetrachloroethylene is made, one should comprehend its structure first. Think of a couple of one carbon bonded to two chlorines, the carbons have double bond between them. Now that's what we call tetrachloroethylene.

Hazards

After its debut in dry cleaning in the 1930s, about millions of people were exposed to tetrachloroethylene. Most of the people who were exposed to tetrachloroethylene in the early years of dry cleaning are dead now. People who got their clothes dry cleaned with this chemical half a century ago are also dead. The data on patients who had their worm infection treated with tetrachloroethylene in the early to mid-20th century shows that they are also mostly dead now.

Tetrachloroethylene is extremely carcinogenic despite not fitting any of the criteria that would make a chemical carcinogenic. There is very strong evidence that it causes cancer but all of the evidence fell into the Mariana Trench. The remaining evidence is that a dry cleaner's zodiac sign was Cancer. Someone walked past a dry cleaner and got diagnosed with stage 4 cancer the next day, clearly the culprit is tetrachloroethylene.

Tetrachloroethylene, being volatile and smelling good, is an inhalational hazard. Victims exposed to tetrachloroethylene might hallucinate the evidence of tetrachloroethylene causing cancer.