Whatever led to Cho Seung-hui's madness may have been exacerbated by tetrachloroethylene, a toxic chemical his parents have been chronically exposed to in their career as dry cleaners, one expert suspects.
Dr. Dolores Malaspina, chairwoman of New York University School of Medicine's psychiatry department, recently found that kids of dry cleaners are 3-1/2 times more likely to develop schizophrenia.
Cho's parents, Cho Sung and Cho Hyang, have worked in dry cleaning for 15 years.
"The toxin [tetrachloroethylene] ... gets in the clothing, the hair and the skin of everyone in a dry-cleaning household," says Malaspina. "The vapors are very volatile - it's an airborne toxin."
Children of dry cleaners would come in contact with the dangerous fumes during likely visits to his parents' workplace. But the parents also would carry home inhalable particles each day they returned from work.
Cho has never been officially diagnosed with schizophrenia, but his documented mental problems and family work history make for a "very intriguing" argument for such a diagnosis, said Malaspina.
The doctor did the study while at the New York Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University. She and other researchers studied 88,829 Israeli children born to parents who worked as dry cleaners.
Tetrachloroethylene - aka perchloroethylene, "Perc" or "PCE" - also has been linked to cancer and birth defects. Though it's absorbed slowly across skin, the mere presence can release inhalable vapors.
Organic dry cleaners do not use the chemical.
The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry says chronic exposure to Perc "can result in memory and concentration impairment, vision disturbances, dizziness, irritability, ataxia, sleep disturbances and peripheral neuropathy."
New York City requires dry cleaners using Perc to have special air permits and use up-to-date equipment.
Last July, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered all Perc machines out of residential buildings by July 2009, over fears that Perc vapors may be dangerous to residents. An estimated 75,000 New Yorkers live in buildings housing Perc machines.
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