Can "green" solvents be on a par with their conventional toxic counterparts?
The average person comes into contact with solvents—toxic substances that dissolve other substances—thousands of times each day without even thinking about them. Solvents are in many everyday products: printer ink, shoe polish, cleaning products, nail polish, moisturizers, and cosmetics, among others. For many millions of people—an estimated 10 million workers in the U.S. alone—those daily interactions with toxic solvents can be much more frequent and intense. If you’re working with the substances, then your proximity and their effects can either be immediate (e.g., dizzy spells, nausea and vomiting), or they can be long-term, less easy to spot, and potentially devastating. Because the effects can accumulate over many years, studies regarding the consequences of solvent exposure are often inconclusive; the symptoms can also be attributed to other conditions, some naturally occurring.
In 1998, the Harvard School of Public Health presented a report on a painter who had been exposed to mixed solvents over decades and had been diagnosed with chronic toxic encephalopathy. The findings were significant because the symptoms presented themselves in the patient from the age of 40; subsequent tests showed that he was indeed suffering from a number of ailments that, when combined (along with his young age), signified damage from solvents. However, taken on their own and perhaps in an older patient, the symptoms could have been attributed to other conditions.