Workplace protections against perchloroethylene, long the dominant solvent in conventional dry cleaning, will not take full effect until late 2027 under a federal rule that took effect on July 28. The Environmental Protection Agency extended several compliance deadlines by roughly eighteen months, moving initial exposure monitoring from December 2025 to June 21, 2027, and pushing the exposure limit, regulated-area and respiratory protection requirements to September 20, 2027.
The chemical, also called PCE or tetrachloroethylene, has been studied for its effects on the liver. Researchers at Keck Medicine of USC reported that U.S. adults with detectable PCE in their blood were about three times more likely to have significant liver fibrosis than adults without detectable exposure. That analysis was published in Liver International in the autumn of 2025.
