From the Editors Laptop...

BREAKING NEWS...

KATU News removes "Dry Cleaning's Dirty little Secret" from Website.

A meeting was held on Thursday May 31st between ODCA President Scott McClure and KATU Reporter Anna Song. The result of this meeting is that KATU has removed the entire "Dirty Secret" segment and links from their website. Details of this meeting will be reported in next month's ODCA Newsletter.

There is an ancient Chinese curse that goes something like this. "May you live in interesting times"

I think that pretty much sums up the last two months for the dry cleaners of Oregon. We started with a silly little piece in the Willamette Week which was followed by the City of Portland's website page telling people not to go to dry cleaners. Then the Earth Day garbage from KATU in which individuals from our own industry chose to blatantly lie about a product they don't use simply for the sake of "building" their own business. All this was capped off by the KATU news piece, "Dry Cleaning's Dirty Little Secret" featuring the same people as the Earth Day piece.

Anna Song, the reporter on this story, (or as I like to call her, Miss Information), claims that she didn't have anything to do with the Earth Day segment, that it was done by someone else. I guess it doesn't really matter. This station, and the media in general seem to have a vendetta against our industry and it's a no-holds-barred, anything goes campaign for ratings.

It was no more than 5 minutes after the KATU piece aired on May 10th that my CSR called me at home to tell me she got an anonymous call, (don't people realize that almost EVERYONE has caller ID nowadays?) from an outraged customer who was going to be out front picketing the next day. I spent the better part of the next two days at my front counter assuring customers that, no, they weren't going to get sick if I cleaned their clothes. It wasn't so difficult to put them at ease. I simply explained the facts and a short history of dry cleaning and PERC. I think the one thing that I said that gave me the most credibility in their eyes was when I pointed out that it was a sweeps week. That statement, and that statement alone, validated the other information I was giving them and put their fears to rest.

I remember at convention in 1999, then President Elect Gary Campbell said, "These are serious times for dry cleaners". I think those words are just as valid today as they were then. At that time our worry was mostly about the issues surrounding "retroactive liability". Today though, the media has latched onto the environmental banner and the media has more power to persuade our clientele than any regulator ever will.

As a PERC cleaner, my perspective will be somewhat different than those of you using alternative solvents. But should it be? While doing research for the fact sheet, now posted on the ODCA website, I ran into a curious oddity. When I did a google search for EPA PERC Cancer, and no matter how I changed the wording, a web page came up linking GreenEarth solvent to cancer in mice. You do the math.

So what happens now? We as an industry have defended ourselves with every logical scientific document we can find. We have changed the way we operate in the name of the environment. We have put into place, procedures to prevent contamination and clean up contamination from past practices. By our own hand we have regulated ourselves. To what end?

To what end indeed! The media will state that 80 to 85 percent of our industry uses PERC. Yes, you did hear 99 percent in the KATU Earth Day segment. The reality is we only use 12 percent of the PERC produced. That would be TWELVE PERCENT.

Why isn't anyone asking about the other 88 percent? Where is it going? Who is using it? What is it for? And now I ask you; Why is our industry being targeted when others are not? Why is our industry taking the brunt of the environmental attacks and spending the bulk of the money to defend itself when we are clearly a minority user of this product?

I would suggest it's time for a change. I would suggest it's time to start pointing the finger at this other 88 percent and I would suggest that it's time they step forward and help in the defense of the product we all use. I would suggest it's time we stopped being the sacrificial lamb. Is this the answer? I don't know. I do know however that the methods used by our industry to justify our continued use of PERC aren't working.