Sunday, March 18, 2007

Warning: Clorox Disinfecting Wipes Are Not For Hands & Faces


A few years ago while I was shopping at Sam's Club, I spotted these wipes. I picked up a bunch thinking they would be great for the car to clean up my kids before & after meals.

When I got back to work and showed this purchase to one of my much younger and smarter associates, she looked at me as if I was a complete moron.

" You will poison your children if you use this on them!" she said. " Don't you know that bleach is a poison?!!!! (This came from the same employee that disapproved of my using Comet Cleanser to get stains out of coffee cups that were left unwashed in the sink because it contained bleach.)
In reading the label, we found that while the wipes do not contain bleach they do use
Dimethyl Ethylbenzyl Ammonium Chloride to kill bacteria.

I guess it would help if I read the label. Another interesting sort of related bit of household cleaning trivia: Did you know if you mix Comet ( contains bleach ) and Mr. Clean ( ammonia ), you create a bio-hazard / poisonous gas ( Chlorine Gas )? I discovered this while trying to get rid of bathtub scum. Luckily I have a husband that is smart & picked up the scent in the early stages. Just call me the housework terrorist!

Lesson: Pay attention to product labels and be more aware of what household chemicals can be harmful to friends and family. Disinfectants meant for laundry and non-porous surfaces are not healthy for the human body.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My wife and I stopped using these poisons a few years ago when we found out there were so harmful. We use 3% hydrogen peroxide for everything and it works much better, there's minimal smell and it naturally disinfects. No more worries that we are killing ourselves or our children.