[blparent] OT warning

Sun Feb 8 02:57:58 UTC 2009

No, what he said, was that particular product was a hoax, however most 
cleaning products are unsafe for animals.  that's why the warning label, 
that was the message Isent attached to the original. V
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Shelton" <rshelton1 at gmail.com>
To: "'NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List'" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2009 7:46 PM
Subject: Re: [blparent] OT warning

> My vet says it is true...

Then your vet is misinformed.  Right off the front page of snopes.com:

http://snopes.com/critters/crusader/swiffer.asp

Origins: So much about this anonymous message purportedly detailing the
demise of someone's neighbor's dog and that neighbor's housekeeper's two
cats
is either wrong or unverifiable that we cannot see how it could reasonably
be considered anything but false:
list of 3 items
. The message gives no information about its writer or either of the pet
owners, and thus provides no avenue through which inquiries can be made to
verify
its contents. It appears to have been disseminated through its posting to
many different dog-related newsgroups and mailing lists, always by a
second-hand
source who had "received it in e-mail."

. The claims that the cleaning agent used with the Swiffer WetJet is
"antifreeze" or "a compound which is one molecule away from" something else
are quite
similar to a number of other alarmist scares we've seen (such as one about
margarine) and are indicative of an uninformed writer's making unwarranted
assumptions.

According to PG's Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS),
 most of the cleaning fluid used in the Swiffer WetJet system is water
(somewhere between 90 and 100 percent), with propylene glycol n-propyl ether
and
isopropyl alcohol making up between 1 and 4 percent each, and the remainder
of the solution composed of minor ingredients and
preservatives.

The two most common compounds found in antifreeze and de-icing solutions are
ethylene glycol and propylene glycol. The former has been identified as
posing
A danger to pets, but propylene glycol is much safer than ethylene glycol -
it has been classified by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an
additive that is "generally recognized as safe" for use in food, it is found
in a variety of medicines and cosmetics, and it is recommended as a safe
alternative to antifreeze for pet owners. Moreover, what the Swiffer Wetjet
cleaning solution contains is not propylene glycol itself, but propylene
glycol-propyl ether, an ingredient found in many, many different brands and
types of household cleaning products. If this compound truly posed a
significant risk of causing fatal liver damage in cats and dogs, we should
be hearing about many more pet deaths associated with cleaning products
other than the Swiffer
WetJet.

Also note that the danger posed to pets by antifreeze (i.e., ethylene
glycol) has to do with kidney failure, not destruction of the liver as
claimed in
the message quoted above.

. The warning message claims that the anonymous writer found on his WetJet
packaging a warning label which stated that the product "may be harmful to
small
children and animals." We examined the warning labels on every Swiffer
WetJet product we could find at our local stores, and none of them bore such
wording.
The labelling on all these products (i.e., the Swiffer WetJet Power Mop with
Jet-Action Sprayer, the Wood Floor Cleaner, the Multi-Purpose Cleaner, and
the Cleaning Pad Refill) was identical and read: "AVOID ACCIDENTS: KEEP OUT
OF REACH OF CHILDREN AND PETS. In case of eye contact, flush thoroughly with
water. If irritation persists, call a physician." This is the standard
boilerplate warning label found on virtually every household cleaning
product to
inform users that cleaning agents are generally caustic and may be harmful
should they come into direct contact with the eye. On Swiffer products, the
first line of the warning (the one referencing children and pets) was
presented in block letters and in darker type than the rest of the message,
all of
which was listed in three languages: English, French, and Spanish.

Only the warning carried on the Antibacterial Cleaner solution was
different: after an expanded caution about not getting the product into
one's eyes and
the procedure for flushing exposed eyes with water, it concluded, ''Contact
a Poison Control Center or doctor for treatment advice. Have the product
container
or label with you when calling the Poison Control Center or doctor or going
for treatment." Nowhere on this label was there mention of children or pets,
and even the part of the warning devoted to Poison Control Centers and
doctors might well have applied only to the preceding passage about getting
the
solution into one's eyes. No Swiffer product carried a warning cautioning
users that its toxicity might pose a danger to children or pets, as
suggested
by the message quoted above.
list end
On its web site, Procter & Gamble describes its Swiffer WetJet cleaning
system as an all-in-one, ready-to-use mopping system. According to the entry
in
its "Swiffer QA" section devoted to the question of whether the product is
safe to use around pets:

Q: Is Swiffer safe for animals? What if my pet licks the floor or his paws?

A: Your pet will be fine if it licks its paws after walking on a newly wet
floor mopped with WetJet or Wet cloths. You can always offer water or milk
to
help remove the perfume taste from your pet's mouth. But even drinking large
amounts of the Swiffer solution would not be expected to cause more than
temporary
and minor intestinal upset.

In direct response to the e-mail's claims, Procter and Gamble posted a
rebuttal:

Q: Are the ingredients safe?

A: We're glad you came to us for the facts about the rumor circulating.
Swiffer Wet cloths and WetJet liquid solution do not contain antifreeze or
any
ingredient similar to it. In fact, Swiffer products have been safely used in
over 15 million U.S. homes - many with pets - for nearly five years.

Independent veterinarians and scientists evaluated the Swiffer Wet Cloths
and WetJet cleaners and found them safe. The ASPCA (American Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) has even posted information about this
rumor on their site. Here's a link to their home page:
http://www.aspca.org

We have pets too, and their health and well-being is very important to us.
Please help us put animal lovers' minds at ease and stop this rumor by
sharing
the truth with others.

The ASPCA's Animal Poison Control Center also issued a
Statement declaring this rumor to be unfounded:

Veterinary toxicologists at the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center have
reviewed the claim described in a widely distributed email alleging a
relationship
between the use of Swiffer Wet Jet and liver failure in a dog. The email
alleges that exposure to the ingredients in Swiffer Wet Jet caused a dog's
death.

The Swiffer Wet Jet system contains water (90-100%), propylene glycol
n-propyl ether or propylene glycol n-butyl ether and isopropyl alcohol
(1-4%). These
ingredients are safe to use around pets when used according to label
directions and would not cause liver damage at product concentrations.
Propylene glycol
n-butyl/propyl ether differs significantly from ethylene glycol, the
potentially toxic ingredient present in most antifreeze products. Ethylene
glycol
is frequently implicated in causing renal failure in dogs following
antifreeze ingestion. Propylene glycol n-propyl ether and propylene glycol
n-butyl
ether are very safe ingredients at levels used in cleaning products and do
not cause kidney or liver failure.

If this warning is as unsubstantiated as it appears to be, then why did
someone write it? One possibility is that most pet owners are of course
quite distraught
when beloved, apparently healthy animal companions die for no obvious
reason, and in their grief they understandably try to make sense of the
otherwise
unexplainable by finding something to which the deaths can be attributed.
Unfortunately, this emotional reaction often leads people to lay the blame
on
agents that may have only a coincidental connection to events. For example,
a pet owner re-carpets his home, and a week later both his dogs suddenly
die.
In this circumstance, many people would quite naturally assume that the new
carpeting - which draws attention as the most substantial and visible change
to the household - must have been connected to the death of the dogs, but
much more evidence would be necessary to draw that conclusion. Quite
possibly
a factor (or combination of factors) unrelated to carpeting was the cause,
and the timing of the dogs' deaths was completely coincidental. Or the
connection
may have been tangential - perhaps after the new carpeting was installed,
the residents took to removing their shoes upon entering the house; the
dogs,
now having convenient access to those shoes, began to chew or lick them,
thereby picking up some kind of toxin or illness-causing biological agent
carried
in from the outside on those shoes.

Also, given this message's similarity to a different, unfounded e-mail
warning about another Procter & Gamble product, Febreze, we'd have to
consider the possibility that someone with a grudge against Procter & Gamble
is maliciously trying to damage the company by deliberately spreading false
information about their products.

-----Original Message-----
From: Veronica Smith [mailto:madison_tewe at spinn.net]
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 3:41 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blparent] OT warning

My vet says it is true, it has traces of anti freeze and can be harmful to
pets, causing things such as vomiting. V
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dena Wainwright" <autumnrose21 at gmail.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 6:17 PM
Subject: Re: [blparent] OT warning

> this is not true. my husband researched this online, and there are experts
> from various vet associations, the spca, and consumer reports who have
> refuted this.
> Dena
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Eva Adams" <eadams15 at gmail.com>
> To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 1:55 PM
> Subject: [blparent] OT warning
>
>
>>I thought this might be good for some of us to read.
>>
>> Please pass this on.
>>  I found this interesting and wanted to pass it along.
>>                  Recently someone had to have their 5-year old German
>> Shepherd dog put down due to liver failure. The dog was completely
>> healthy
>> until a few weeks ago,  so they had a necropsy done to see what the cause
>> was. The liver levels were unbelievable, as if the dog had ingested
>> poison
>> of some kind. The dog is kept inside, and when he's outside, someone's
>> with
>> him, so the idea of him getting into something unknown was hard to
>> believe.
>>                  My neighbor started going through all the items in the
>> house. When he got to  the Swiffer Wetjet, he noticed, in very tiny
>> print,
>> a
>> warning which stated  'may be harmful to small children and animals.' He
>> called the company to ask what the contents of the cleaning agent are and
>> was astounded to find out that antifreeze is one of the ingredients
>> (actually, he was told it's a compound which is one molecule away from
>> antifreeze). Therefore, just by the dog walking on the floor cleaned with
>> the solution, then licking its own paws, it ingested enough of the
>> solution
>> to destroy its liver.
>>                  Soon after his dog's death, his housekeepers' two cats
>> also died of liver failure. They both used the Swiffer Wetjet for quick
>> cleanups on their  floors. Necropsies weren't done on the cats, so they
>> couldn't file a lawsuit, but he asked that we spread the word to as many
>> people as possibl e so they don't lose their animals.
>>                  This is equally harmful to babies and small children
>> that
>> play on the floor a lot and put their fingers in their mouths a lot.
>>                  PLEASE, EVEN IF YOU DO NOT HAVE BABIES, SMALL CHILDREN
>> OR
>> OWN A PET; PLEASE FORWARD THIS ON! YOU MAY NOT HAVE ANY CHILDREN OR PETS
>> BUT
>> SOME OF YOU HAVE FRIENDS OR FAMILY WITH PETS AND ALSO FAMILIES WITH
>> GRANDCHILDREN AND GREAT GRANDCHILDREN.
>> _______________________________________________
>> blparent mailing list
>> blparent at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blparent_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> blparent:
>>
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blparent_nfbnet.org/autumnrose21%40gma
il.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> blparent mailing list
> blparent at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blparent_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> blparent:
>
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blparent_nfbnet.org/madison_tewe%40spi
nn.net
>

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.0.233 / Virus Database: 270.10.19/1938 - Release Date: 02/04/09
16:35:00

_______________________________________________
blparent mailing list
blparent at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blparent_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
blparent:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blparent_nfbnet.org/madison_tewe%40spinn.net

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.0.233 / Virus Database: 270.10.19/1939 - Release Date: 02/06/09 
17:28:00