Degreaser's Flush

Mechanics in auto shops, who usually end their day covered with grease, can wash it off with a bar of strong soap.

Their opposite numbers, the degreasers, have a more tenacious problem, accord ing to the Archives of Environmental Health. Degreasers are the men who remove the grease used as a protective coating on machinery and steel cables.

They use a solvent, trichloroethylene, which appears to be harmless in normal use; but Dr. Richard D. Stewart and colleagues at the Medical College of Wisconsin have found that it does not mix with alcohol. After working for about three weeks with TCE, a man who stops at the corner saloon for a few beers or a couple of boilermakers develops vivid red blotches on the face. This degreaser's flush is so unsightly and persistent that men who wish to be rid of it have a hard choice: quit drinking or quit the job.

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