Industrial Uses

Adhesives & Sealants ↴

Coatings and adhesives sometimes require the dissolving power of chlorinated solvents to solubilize the wide variety of thermoplastic ingredients. DCM and trichloroethylene feature rapid drying rates and low flammability that make them ideal for use in rubber cements, styrenics, and epoxies.

Foam Blowing

...

Formulation of Preparations

...

Intermediate Use Manufacture

...

Recycling

...

Metal Cleaning

...

Decorating

...

Extraction Solvent

...

Cleaning

...

Textile Industry

...

Functional Fluid

...

Professional Uses

Packaging & (Re)-Filling

...

Adhesives

...

Aerosols

...

Laboratory Use

...

Manual Cleaning

...

Decorating

...

Dry Cleaning

...

Film Cleaning and Copying

...

Consumer Uses

Aerosols

Despite controversies chlorinated solvents remain present in a range of aerosol products including hairspray and deodorant

.

Glue (including carpet glue, glue spray, and glue from a tube, super glue, wood parquet glue)

Chlorinated solvents are used in a wide variety of adhesive products available to consumers, including carpet glue, spray and tube adhesives, superglue, and wood parquet glue.

Decorating

Chlorinated solvents are common ingredients in materials such as paint spray and paint stripper - although since 2010 DCM is no longer permitted in home use paint strippers, in part due to problems encountered with disposal, chlorinated solvents continue to be used for this purpose in non-EU countries.

Washing and cleaning products

...

Pest Control

Chlorinated solvents are used in various plant protection products, both for large-scale agriculture and for home-use, and in other pest control sprays.

Atmosphere

The Environmental Protection Agency has expressed fears that even short lived halocarbons may have a significant detrimental effect on the global atmosphere, as well as concerns about our relative lack of understanding of the environmental effects of these compounds1. Several chlorinated solvents are listed by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) as a hazardous air pollutant (HAP) under the U.S. Clean Air Act. However, various environmental NGOs and organisations maintain that current regulation of chlorinated solvent disposal is inadequate - for example, chlorinated solvents are not regulated under the Montreal Protocol despite evidence that they may contribute to ozone depletion.

Photochemical Smog

Global Warming

Dichloromethane has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) ten times greater than that of carbon dioxide, whilst trichloromethane has a GWP 30 times greater. At the time of writing the GWPs of tetrachloroethene and trichloroethene are not known, but are expected to be comparable to those for DCM and TCM.

Acid Rain

In the lower atmosphere degradation of chlorinated solvents is initiated by a reaction with the hydroxyl radical, and forms a variety of products including hydrochloric acid, formic acid, and phosgene (the colourless gas infamous for its use as a chemical weapon during World War One). These compounds dissolve in cloud and rain water and are ultimately deposited from the atmosphere in acid rain and snow.

Further, trichloroacetic acid (TCA) can be formed as a minor product in the atmospheric deg-radation of some chlorinated solvents. Studies have shown that TCA is broadly distributed in precipitation, surface water and soil on a global scale. Since the observed levels in soil in some areas have been found to exceed the accepted 'safe' levels (2.4 μg/kg for terrestrial organisms) the European Commission instructed producers of the relevant solvents to carry out extensive studies of the origin and fate of environmental TCA. Although the results of these studies suggest that TCA levels in soils could not be explained by precipitation alone, the European Union Risk Assessment on nevertheless concluded that “it is considered unlikely that depo-sition of TCA from the atmosphere will by itself lead to levels of TCA in soil that pose a risk for ter-restrial organisms”.

Biosphere

The No Observed Effect Concentration (NOEC) for the most sensitive species of plants was 46 μg/m

Groundwater

...

Marine Environment

Chlorinated solvents are generally highly volatile and only sparingly soluble in water. Even if traces of solvents are briefly present in aqueous waste streams, they volatilise from rivers and lakes with a half-life of about a month or less, unless they are trapped in groundwater. Nevertheless, presence of chlorinated solvents is a concern due to its potential impact on marine life...