Health
Chlorinated solvents are a vital component in ensuring we are healthy, as the following examples show:
Methylene Chloride is important in improving human health, for example in the development and preparation of pharmaceuticals (e.g. antibiotics, cholesterol treatments, and flu vaccines). This chlorinated solvent is used effectively in the synthesis and extraction of several active pharmaceutical ingredients and vitamins, as well as in coating tablets.
Perchloroethylene is used as a feedstock to produce the fluoroplastic blister packaging used for many pharmaceutical products.
Both methylene chloride and perchloroethylene are used in the synthesis of agrochemicals (pesticides and herbicides) that are employed by farmers around the world to efficiently grow crops to feed the growing global population.
Finally, the related co-product chloroform is used as feedstock for the synthesis of Chlorobutanol that is applied as pain reliever in dentistry and as a preservative for medical injections.