Aqueous Cleaning Environmental and Safety Issues

Q. What are the environmental health and safety issues that need to be considered when developing an aqueous cleaning process?

A. Aqueous cleaners, by definition, use water for cleaning and rinsing. This has both advantages and disadvantages. Water is an inherently environmentally sound and substantially safe chemical to work with. It is a recyclable natural resource. Yet, as populations grow, clean surface water will become increasingly scarce. Water can also be a transport medium for various polluting or hazardous chemicals that may derive from the use of aqueous cleaning in specific instances. One way to look at the environmental health and safety of a cleaning process is to consider: How hazardous is the cleaning process? How hazardous is the effluent resulting from the cleaning process? How sustainable is the current process of the long term?

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