If you’re shopping for a degreaser solvent, the first step toward purchasing the best degreaser is determining its frequency of use and how you’ll use it. For occasional degreasing projects that take place in small garages, almost any store bought degreaser will do. But if you need a degreaser for frequent industrial grade degreasing, it pays to evaluate degreasers using two criteria that usually don’t apply to using a degreaser in domestic or small commercial settings. Below, we list these criteria and explain their importance.
The Presence of Hazardous Air Pollutants
Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) emanate from the toxic chemicals contained in traditional degreasers and other industrial cleaners. Producing a strong smell that we traditionally associate with a cleaner’s stringency, HAPs are especially dangerous to the health of those who inhale them. In the short-term, HAPs can cause respiratory distress, temporary vertigo, and stomach sickness. But in the long-term, HAP exposure can cause chronic conditions such as infertility, neurological damage, and even cancer, each of which typically results in costly lawsuits. To protect both the health of its workers and its finances, it’s implicit for companies to use a degreaser solvent that contains no HAPs.
The main concern with HAPs is their potential affect on workers. But Companies should also be concerned about how HAPs could affect their ability to use a degreaser over the long-term. As the green movement progresses, the EPA continues to regulate and prohibit certain chemicals in industrial and commercial settings, which leads to the regulation and prohibition of solutions that contain the chemicals. In the best case scenario, an EPA regulated degreaser can leave companies with an unusable stock of toxic degreaser, while in the worst case scenario it can put companies in the position of replacing a critical degreasing solution with no research in place. Before you purchase an industrial degreaser, always make sure that its components aren’t scheduled for EPA regulation. A list of chemicals scheduled for regulation can be found at the EPA’s website.
The Presence of Volatile Organic Compounds
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) produce the same short-term and long-term health conditions as HAPs. But their organic composition means that they aren’t toxic to the environment, which means that they aren’t subject to EPA regulations. In many cases, the threat of EPA regulations and not the threat to workers health cause companies to switch from a toxic degreaser solvent to an environmentally preferred degreaser. But it’s important to remember that VOCs can have the same significant impact on a company’s finances due to lawsuits that result from toxic exposure in the workplace. A full list of VOCs can be found by performing a Web search for Volatile Organic Compounds.