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Danger at the drycleaners =

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A great British renaissance has been taking place. From Aberdeen to = the West=20 Country, the zing is back in manufacturing. It=92s about time this = spectacular=20 story was told.

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Danger at the drycleaners

by=20 Ross Clark - Wednesday, 5th September 2007 -

Just how much do you want that egg stain removed from your tie?

I only ask because if you read a leaflet put out by the Health And = Safety=20 Executive (HSE) entitled Dry Cleaners: Are You In Control? you = would=20 probably conclude you can live with those dirt marks after=20 all.

"Most people don=92t consider dry cleaning to be a = dangerous=20 industry," begins this marvellous document.

"But just consider the following:

A dry cleaner is electrocuted because of faulty electrics.

An employee is found unconscious having tried to mop up a spill of = cleaning=20 solvent.

Customers are hurt when a perchloroethylene machine explodes during=20 distillation.

An outbreak of legionnaires=92 disease is traced to a drycleaner=92s = wet cooling=20 tower .

Major structural damage is caused when a steam boiler blows up.

"All nightmare scenarios for the dry cleaning industry and costly in = many=20 different ways. But none of them need happen if the drycleaner is in = control of=20 health and safety".

These scenarios need not happen? You = can say=20 that again. Fascinated by just how many dry cleaners=92 shops are in the = habit of=20 exploding, emitting clouds of poisonous gas and striking us down with=20 legionnaires=92 disease, I contacted the HSE and asked them for a log of = fatal dry=20 cleaning disasters.

"Er, not sure we can do that sir," came the response. "I don=92t = think we break=20 down our statistics to the dry cleaning business."

Having trawled through the HSE=92s statistics myself I couldn=92t = find a single=20 fatality attributed to the dry cleaning industry (there were only six = deaths in=20 the entire retail sector last year).

Nor could I find a reference to a single boiler explosion across the = whole of=20 British business.

Never mind the failure of dry cleaners to explode or to kill us in = other=20 ways.

The government and the European Union have nevertheless decided = between=20 themselves that it is time for a crackdown.

By October 31 all dry cleaners must obtain a "permit to operate" from = their=20 local authority or face closure. All is explained in Process Guidance = Note 6/46=20 (04), published by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural = Affairs=20 (DEFRA).

Talk about national stereotyping: the rules have been translated into = Greek,=20 Turkish, Gujarati and Urdu.

Whether it is such good news for anyone wanting to clean their suit = is=20 another matter: we will just have to hope that not too many shops are = driven out=20 of business by the nannying regulations.

Henceforth, all dry cleaners will have to keep a log of their = operations,=20 including the weight of clothes they clean, the stock of solvents they = use and=20 how much solvent they use each time.

In order to do this they must weigh their stock of solvents every = week, and=20 thereby calculate exactly how much has been consumed by their dry = cleaning=20 machines.

Moreover, they must describe in great detail their training = procedures and=20 how they plan to keep their records of solvents used.

Of course solvents are hazardous substances which contribute towards=20 pollution and can lay you flat out if sprayed onto a rag and sniffed. =

But if the aim is to catch out rogue dry cleaners, what use is a log = compiled=20 by themselves, which might easily be faked?

If the HSE thinks a dry cleaner is polluting the environment surely = it should=20 send its officers to snoop around the premises for leaking solvent = fumes.

Of course they won=92t do this because it would put valuable health = and safety=20 officers out into the hazardous environment of a British High Street. = Far safer=20 if you can restrict them to poring over data in the office.

DEFRA=92s officials certainly don=92t have hugely high expectations = of the Turks=20 and Indians beavering away in dry cleaning shops.

The guide is stuffed with guidance on "best practice" in the dry = cleaning=20 industry, including this gem: "The door to the machine is then closed = and not=20 opened again until the cycle is finished."

Just because officials down at DEFRA are a bit shaky over how to wash = their=20 own socks, is it any excuse to insult the intelligence of those who have = been=20 running dry cleaners=92 shops for years?

Related tags: health=20 and safety, dry=20 cleaner, defra= , hse,=20

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