What is TCE used for?
What is TCE used for?
It is used primarily to make refrigerants and other hydrofluorocarbons and as a degreasing solvent for metal equipment. TCE is also used in some household products, such as cleaning wipes, aerosol cleaning products, tool cleaners, paint removers, spray adhesives, and carpet cleaners and spot removers.
What is TCE contamination?
TCE in contaminated soil, or more likely contaminated groundwater, can form a vapor that migrates through the soil into the home. This exposure route is known as vapor intrusion. Vapors can enter the home through cracks in the foundation, the sump pump, or through openings where utility lines enter the home.
Are TCE and PCE the same?
TCE and PCE are man-made chemicals and were used often in manufacturing. TCE is a nonflammable colorless liquid. PCE is a nonflammable liquid. It is used frequently in dry cleaning and to remove grease.
How do you treat TCE?
TCE usually is remediated through pump and treat, using either air stripping or granular activated carbon, but there are many innovative cleanup methods—physical, chemical, thermal, and biological—that have been applied successfully to remove TCE from soil and ground water or to convert it into nonhazardous compounds.
Is TCE still used?
The chemical, trichloroethylene (or TCE) has long been used for degreasing and cleaning metal parts in factories, but has been classified a “human carcinogen” by the Environmental Protection Agency since 2011.
How long does TCE stay in your system?
TCE can be detected in the breath and urine up to 16 hours after exposure; metabolites can persist for a week or more.
Is trichloroethylene harmful to the body?
TCE is carcinogenic to humans by all routes of exposure and poses a potential human health hazard for noncancer toxicity to the central nervous system, kidney, liver, immune system, male reproductive system, and the developing embryo/fetus.
How do you detect TCE?
If you have been exposed to TCE recently, it can be detected in your breath, blood, or urine. For small amounts of TCE, breath testing must occur within an hour or two after exposure. For large amounts of TCE, blood and urine tests can find TCE and its byproducts up to a week after exposure.
Is TCE illegal?
Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a dangerous chemical. Minnesota is now the first state to ban the use of toxic TCE in any facility required to have a state-issued air permit. EPA fails to protect the public against toxic TCE, despite years of research showing its harmful impacts on human health.
What are the side effects of trichloroethylene?
Acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term) inhalation exposure to trichloroethylene can affect the human central nervous system (CNS), with symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, confusion, euphoria, facial numbness, and weakness.