In Search of the Cookie Dough Tree
Here are the tox reports for 1,1,1-TCE and Trichloroethylene, respectively<p><a href="http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp70.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp70.pdf</a><p><a href="http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp19.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp19.pdf</a><p>1,1,1-TCE used to be a household chemical; it was a component of liquid paper, of floor adhesives, and spray-on shoe polish. It was phased out due to concerns about the ozone layer. It is not classified by the EPA or the WHO IARC as carcinogenic.<p>Unlike 1,1,1-TCE, Trichloroethylene is apparently still used in household products, like corrections fluids, and in a number of automotive solvent cleaners. You can smell it at 0.01% concentration in the air; it is indeed apparently smelly stuff, about twice as smelly as 1,1,1-TCE (I'm guessing this is a linear response). It <i>is</i> a probable human carcinogen based on mouse models; maximum routine occupational exposure over 8 hours is 200ppm (so about twice the level at which you start to smell it).<p>If you're my age and you remember the CFC media blitz of the late 80's: TCE/1,1,1-TCE are apparently archetypical examples of CFCs. TCE is an extremely common industrial chemical; it isn't (if you were wondering) in any way specific to electronics.