Chapter 9: Solvents and hydrocarbons · Part 4: Chlorinated solvents
Trichloroethylene (TCE)
- Poison schedule (Australia)
- Made from a hazardous chemical
- Contaminant risk
The worst fact: the WHO cancer agency rates it carcinogenic to humans, based on kidney cancer. The US EPA found heart defects in unborn babies (along with immune effects) are its most sensitive harms, with older pregnant women especially at risk, and banned retailers from selling it for any use after 16 June 2025.
Why brands use it: it strips grease fast and doesn't catch fire.
Take care if: you're pregnant, or get it on your skin. It's readily absorbed through skin and crosses the placenta. Australia classes it as "Causes skin irritation; Causes serious eye irritation; May cause drowsiness or dizziness; Suspected of causing genetic defects; May cause cancer", and it's a Schedule 6 Poison at any strength. In 2000, Australia's regulator found products sold to the public with up to 100% (a component cleaner), including an aerosol waterproofer for camping gear and ski wear (70%). Current Australian safety data sheets show it only as a 99%+ industrial degreaser (Schedule 6); we found no household product with it today.
Comes from: 1,2-dichloroethane (from ethylene), chlorinated and stripped of hydrogen chloride. Australia classes 1,2-dichloroethane as "May cause cancer". That doesn't mean it's in the product, but it's not a great starting point for something you clean with.
Myth check: "It's banned, so it's gone": not from the environment. The US ban keeps exemptions until 2074 so labs can keep analysing TCE contamination for clean-ups and monitoring, and clean-up sites can keep disposing of contaminated water.
Contaminants: carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, 1,2-dichloroethane, perc and benzene have been found in commercial TCE. They're unlikely in a well-made product, but it's a factor you can't see on the label.
Fair to say: about 83.6% of US TCE production is used to make the refrigerant HFC-134a, not consumer products. Some US industrial deadlines have been pushed back and the EPA has announced it will reconsider the rule, but the consumer ban still stands.
Correct as of November 2026. What the badges mean
Sources
- Australian Government. Poisons Standard October 2026 (SUSMP), F2026L01327: 2-butoxyethanol; diethylene glycol monobutyl ether; hydrocarbons, liquid; toluene; xylene; tetrachloroethylene; trichloroethylene; Appendix B.
- Safe Work Australia. Hazardous Chemical Information System (HCIS): classifications for each chemical, and for ethylene oxide, propylene oxide, epichlorohydrin, benzene, 1,3-butadiene-containing butane and 1,2-dichloroethane. Workplace exposure standards (amended November 2025) and workplace exposure limits (July 2025). Labelling of workplace hazardous chemicals code of practice (2015). Trichloroethylene health monitoring guide.
- NICNAS. Priority Existing Chemical Reports No. 6: 2-butoxyethanol in cleaning products (1996); No. 8: trichloroethylene (2000); No. 15: tetrachloroethylene (2001). IMAP Tier II assessments: diethylene glycol monobutyl ether (2013); toluene (2017); xylenes (2019).
- US EPA. Trichloroethylene; regulation under TSCA, 89 FR 102568 (2024), and later notices (2025–2026); Perchloroethylene; regulation under TSCA, 89 FR 103560 (2024), and 91 FR 47145 (2026); 40 CFR 751.305 and 751.605; Carbon tetrachloride rule (2024); IRIS: ethylene glycol monobutyl ether (2010); Safer Choice Ingredient List.
- IARC. Monographs vol. 88 (2-butoxyethanol), vol. 106 (trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene); Supplement 7 (mineral oils).
- HSDB (US National Library of Medicine), via PubChem: manufacturing, use and impurity data.
The full source list is at the end of Chapter 9.