Tetrachloroethylene levels in residential dry cleaner buildings in diverse communities in New York City

Environmental Health Perspectives, Oct, 2005 by Michael J. McDermott, Kimberly A. Mazor, Stephen J. Shost, Rajinder S. Narang, Kenneth M. Aldous, Jan E. Storm

Indoor air sample collection and analyses for the NYC Perc Project began in 2001, coincidentally midway through full implementation of the state and city dry cleaner regulations adopted in 1997-1998. The earliest sampled dry cleaner buildings had indoor air perc levels that were markedly below levels reported before 1997 (Schreiber et al. 2002; Wallace et al. 1995), with the unexpected exception of buildings located in neighborhoods with large minority and/or low-income populations. Although the NYC Perc Project was not specifically designed to evaluate the influence of neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics or state and city dry cleaner regulations on indoor air perc level in residential dry cleaner buildings, the results of this sampling effort provide a valuable initial basis for doing this and are reported here. The findings described should prove helpful in continuing federal, state, and local efforts to ensure that residential perc exposures are appropriately limited for all those residing in buildings with dry cleaners using perc.

Materials and Methods

Study area and building selection. Eleven ZIP code areas surrounding Central Park in the borough of Manhattan in New York City comprised the main study area. These areas were selected largely based on their high density of residential dry cleaner buildings, the presence of some buildings where residential perc levels up to 5,000 [micro]g/[m.sup.3] had been previously documented (NYSDOH, unpublished data; Schreiber et al. 2002), and their close proximity to the location of participant visual function evaluations at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Coincidentally, these ZIP code areas also encompass neighborhoods characterized by markedly different income and minority characteristics.

Most dry cleaners in residential buildings included in this study were identified from registration certificates submitted to the NYSDEC as required by the 1997 dry cleaner regulations. Some others were identified from NYSDEC National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Perchloroethylene Dry Cleaners records and from Internet-based business directories (ReferenceUSA, InfoUSA Inc., Omaha, NE; InfoSpace, InfoSpace Inc., Bellevue, WA). Internet-based business directories were cross-referenced against NYSDEC records to ensure that all dry cleaners in the study area were identified, because not all dry cleaners complied with NESHAP or NYSDEC reporting requirements. Dry cleaners identified were contacted by telephone to ascertain whether they were still in business and whether they identified themselves as using perc on site or as drop-off facilities (i.e., locations where items to be dry cleaned are dropped off and picked up but no dry cleaning occurs on site).

Identified dry cleaner buildings were visited and characterized from the sidewalk to verify that the dry cleaner was operating on site and that occupied residences were present in the same building. Numbers of residential floors were also noted for each building. Because NYC Perc Project inclusion criteria required that participants have no exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) other than perc that might influence visual function, dry cleaner buildings where other businesses using VOCs (e.g., nail salons, shoe repair stores, photography developing) were present were excluded from further consideration. At least three other residential buildings with no dry cleaner or other business possibly using VOCs, and located at least one city block away from each dry cleaner building meeting inclusion criteria, were identified as reference buildings.