A Richmond distribution company has been charged with illegally selling a toxic drycleaning chemical to businesses which weren't properly equipped to handle it, including one in North Vancouver.
Prairie Distributors (B.C.) Inc., which sells supplies to the dry-cleaning industry, faces 10 charges under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
The company is charged with selling the dry-cleaning solvent PERC - also known as tetrachlorethylene - to Lower Mainland drycleaners that didn't have proper containment systems between 2011 and 2012. Among those, the company is charged with selling the chemical to Lester's Drycleaners in North Vancouver in May 2012.
The charges result from an Environment Canada investigation into environmental practices of the dry-cleaning industry in the summer of 2012.
As a result of the same investigation, Lester's Drycleaners was also charged with violating environmental regulations. The company eventually pled guilty and was fined $9,500 in July for keeping PERC without a closed lid and without a secondary containment system.
Environmental protection officers who visited the North Vancouver drycleaner found two buckets containing the solvent sitting on the floor of the business without lids on them.
PERC has been recognized as carcinogenic, which is why it is heavily regulated. The chemical can enter the body through contact with the skin and through breathing airborne particulates.
WorksafeBC regulations specify that workers shouldn't be exposed to any more than 25 parts per million over a 15-minute period, with a maximum of four 15-minute periods over eight hours.
Companies that sell the chemical break the law if they sell the solvent to businesses that don't have proper containment systems.
Since this investigation, the federal government has changed the law to increase both minimum and maximum fines for companies caught breaking a number of environmental regulations.
Dry-cleaning businesses breaking rules about how PERC should be handled are now subject to a minimum fine of $25,000.
