The Household Cleaner That Triples Liver Disease Risk

Our liver is a remarkable organ that can regenerate itself better than any other—even better than our skin!

Unlike our skin, our liver can regrow itself if 49% of it is removed (if you tried that with your skin, not only would it not regrow itself, but also you’d be dead very quickly unless in exceptional circumstances).

The liver’s regenerative ability helps defend against MASLD (metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease*), formerly known as NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease).

^{*If you noticed that the new initialism doesn’t add up to the letters in name, yes, we noticed that too, and no, we can’t explain it either}

You can read about how the liver performs this trick and others, here: How To Unfatty A Fatty Liver

But, what’s to blame when someone gets liver disease despite not drinking alcohol or being subject to the other common risk factors for such?

Scientists have found a newly-identified culprit for previously unexplained instances of liver disease:

All about tetrachloroethylene (PCE)

Researchers (Dr. Jennifer Dodge et al.), have found that people exposed to PCE were three times more likely to develop significant liver fibrosis, even without alcohol use, excess fat, or viral infection.

In other words: in situations where none of the usual culprits are to blame.

It gets worse: this risk rose fivefold for every one-nanogram-per-millilitre increase of PCE in the bloodstream, showing a clear dose–response relationship.

Quick mathematical note: to be clear, one nanogram is one billionth of a gram. This is very very little.

You may be wondering: how serious is this fibrosis, compared to MASLD?

And the answer is: the PCE-induced hepatic fibrosis (scar tissue buildup in the liver) can progress to cancer and/or failure and death if undetected.

About that cancer risk: PCE is believed to be a carcinogen, and is already tied to bladder cancer, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and liver cancer. We say “believed to be”, because the causality isn’t technically proven, but it has to be said that the numbers look rather damning.

Per the research conducted by Dr. Dodge and her team, about 7.4% of US adults have detectable PCE; and whereas poverty is a risk factor for most diseases, in this case, higher-income groups and dry-cleaning workers had greater exposure. This is in part because the chemical evaporates from recently dry-cleaned clothes.

It’s also present in many spot-removers and metal polishes.

You can find the paper itself, here: Tetrachloroethylene Is Associated With Presence of Significant Liver Fibrosis: A National Cross-Sectional Study in US Adults

Want to look after your liver instead?

Consider: N-Acetyl Cysteine For The Liver & More

Want to learn more?

For a much deeper dive into this broader topic, you might like this book that we reviewed a little while back:

Healthy Living in a Contaminated World – by Dr. Donald Hoernschemeyer

Take care!