Welcome to Normandy Natural CO2 Cleaners!:::

	Written in Washington post about us We are the first dry cleaners in Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. area to incorporate the new co2 dry cleaning system. Our achievement has been reported on the Washington Post style section on November 25, 2003
		< Some Shops Offer A New Kind of Clean> - By Don Oldenburg Normandy Cleaners is a small shop, barely noticeable in the stretch of storefronts at the Potomac Promenade Shopping Center in Potomac. Even its new white neon "Natural CO2 Cleaners" sign gets too washed out to read on bright days. "It's hard to see," says Gongsan Park, vowing to change the sign so customers will know this is now an environmentally safe, health-conscious "alternative dry cleaners." Two months ago, Gongsan and her husband, Jaeman Park, who have owned and operated Normandy Cleaners for nearly six years, invested in cutting-edge cleaning technology to replace the standard but controversial dry cleaning method. The Parks are among the first cleaners in the metropolitan area to offer the liquid carbon-dioxide cleaning method. The standard solvent used in dry cleaning is perchloroethylene, commonly known as "perc." More than 90 percent of the nation's 33,000 cleaners use the chemical, which the Environmental Protection Agency Lists as a pollutant of air and groundwater. Cleaners are required to follow EPA regulations in handling perc and disposing of its byproducts at hazardous waste facilities. Perc also is considered a health risk: Laboratory studies on animals have found high-dose exposure to be toxic and possible carcinogenic. Studies have shown that exposure even at lower levels can cause headaches, nausea and dizziness. The Parks decided perc is no perk for their customers. "Now we don't worry about our health or the environment," says Gongsan Park of their new CO2 system. They chose it after traveling to New York, New Jersey and California over the past year to see available CO2 machines and other promising environmentally safe cleaning alternatives, such as wet-cleaning and silicone-based system. "now we smell some detergent, some soap, but no chemical smell with CO2," she says. Joe DeSimone, professor of chemistry and chemical engineering at the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University, says CO2 doesn't best up clothes like perc does. "Perc is a hell of a degreasing solvent and it will strip everything off a garment. It is something that should be in a garage washing engine parts," says DeSimone, who designed the first biodegradable CO2 soluble detergent and launched the first CO2 commercial cleaning technology company in 1998. Consumer Reports conducted a study for its February issue that compared the cleaning of all alternative technologies with conventional perc-based dry cleaning. The CO2 method, it concluded, "gave the best results... The clothing didn't change shape, shrink or stretch. There was little or no change in the color or the texture of the fabrics," But Desimone says dry cleaning owners are slow to change over to CO2 systems because of cost-the Parks invested more than $200,000 for theirs. Cleaners nationwide using CO2 systems still number in the dozens instead of hundreds. "It's just a matter of time," says DeSimone of the hope that environmentally safe technology will one day replace perc. Meanwhile, environmental and health advocates are pressing the dry-cleaning industry to rid itself of perc. Last week, environmental groups filed a suit asking a federal court to order the EPA to review the health risks from perc emissions from dry cleaners and to set new standards. Southern California became the first region in the country to ban perc by 2020. Other states have passed regulations imposing fees on dry cleaners to help pay for cleaning up perc-contaminated sites. "we don't endorse on solvent over another," says Nora Nealis, spokeswoman for the National Cleaners Association, a trade group that embraces a 2001 report by the American Council on Science and Health which concluded perc is not hazardous to humans when used according to regulations. Meanwhile, the Parks, who emigrated from Seoul in 1996, believe the CO2 system will pay back their investment. "we believe people will want to come here because of this," Gongsan Park says.
	November 25, 2003


	Consumer Report 2/3/2003 See more >> www.consumerreports.org “In southern California air-quality officials voted in December to phase out the use of perc by 2020. The first step requires that all newly installed cleaning machines use non-perc technology.” “Using identical sits of garments, we compared the new cleaning methods to conventional cleaning with perc. The CO2 and silicone-based processes performed as well as or better than conventional dry cleaning, for about the same price. Wet cleaning was less impressive.” “Carbon dioxide. This method gave the best results, even better than conventional dry cleaning. The clothing didn’t change shape, shrink, or stretch. There was little or no change in the color or the texture of the fabrics; only one silk shirt faded slightly after the third cleaning.