Swiffer Warning!!

[molucass]

Got this from another forum I frequent, the whole entire thing in bold was copied.... :(

"PERMISSION TO FORWARD GRANTED
Take this for what it is worth. I use this product and plan to stop
using
it immediately. I'll stick to steam from now on.

From a Pennsylvania rescue list::

I recently had a neighbor who 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 anitfreeze is one of the ingredients. (actually he was told it's a
compound which is one molecule away from anitfreeze).

Therefore, just by the dog walking on the floor cleaned with the
solution, then licking it's own paws, and the dog eating from its dishes which
were kept on the kitchen floor cleaned with this product, 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
possible so they don't lose their animals."

I hope these companies wouldn't be selling something like that without putting a larger warning on the label. I e-mailed clorox because I have the clorox ready mop. But I looked on both websites and this was in the Q & A sections...

CLOROX...

"Q: Is the Advanced Floor Cleaner safe for children and pets?
A: The Advanced Floor Cleaner can be used to clean areas frequented by children or pets. As with all cleaning products, the Clorox Ready Mop should be kept out of the reach of children. "

SWIFFER...

"Safe for animals?
Question - Is Swiffer safe for animals? What if my pet licks the floor?
Answer - Great news for you and your pets! Swiffer Wet and Swiffer WetJet are specially designed to not leave a residue on the floor, so there's no need to rinse. We suggest you make sure the floor is completely dry before letting your pet walk on it, though, because wet floors can be slippery. Since there isn't a residue, there are no problems if your pet licks the floor.
No more worrying about the owner of those muddy paw prints. You can enjoy the convenience of our Swiffer products without any worries for your pet's safety."

I think my mom may have tried this once, shes out of town right now, but I will have to ask her! I hope she hasn't used it! Anyways, just wanted to get to word out to anyone that may use it!

[slleipnir]

Wow, that is very good to know O_O!!! We just bought swiffer wet's a little while ago but I never got around to using them...My dad said 'you better not waste these!' Well, yeah, unfortunatly they're gonna have to go to waste lol...

[lovemyshiba]

Wow!!
Thanks for the warning--I never got into the whole Swiffer thing--I still use the old mop and bucket routine, and I always go over the floor at least twice with a clean mop with just water on it--JUST IN CASE!!!

I'm very sorry to hear about the animals who died.

[moosmom]

WOW! I HAVE a Swiffer WetJet and use it all the time!! I'll have to check it out before I use it again. Thank God my cats are okay!!

[G.P.girl]

is just the wetjet bad? i use the normal swiffer thing with the wetwipes you put on the ends

[leslie flenner]

I would like to know the chemical compound name of anti-freeze so I could avoid buying it. there are always these secrets going on in the cleaning industry it seems to me. Several years ago, queenscoopalot called the 800# on the clorox bottle to ask why their flower scented clorox does not list "killing bacteria" on the label as the original does. the woman said that it only does what's on the label (so it Doesn't kill bacteria?) Correct me if I'm wrong jan, but I have always and still only by the bleach that says it kills bacteria because not all of them claim to do so which makes zero sense!! Same ingredients- they should all be able to claim they do but look at the labels! they don't! So there is some weird thing going on with the cleaning agent companies that I sure don't get and I want to know how anti-freeze reads on cleaning products because it could be in anything now! This really irritates me!

[Miss Meow]

Leslie, I believe that phenoxyethanol is the chemical name for anti-freeze. You could probably ring an auto store and ask them to check the ingredient list on a can.

Just on the topic of bacteria in the home ... bacteria need food, water and warmth to survive and reproduce. Cleaning with hot water, rinsing all surfaces so there's no soap scunge or detergent residue, and drying the surfaces will kill more bacteria than most anti-bacterial cleaners.

The cleaning sprays with anti-bacterial agents need to 'set' for more than 30 seconds in order to be effective. Then, if they aren't rinsed completely, the surviving bacteria will feed on the residue and reproduce. I have some research on this somewhere; will post if I can find it.

(We don't use any toxic chemicals in the house, just disinfectant when scrubbing the litter trays.)

[Pam]

Originally posted by lovemyshiba
Wow!!
I never got into the whole Swiffer thing--I still use the old mop and bucket routine

Me too Emily. This is just so sad because it was completely avoidable but how were they to know? :( Thank you for the warning so that no PTer ever has to go through such a thing. :(

[dukedogsmom]

We use those sheets. I've got to check to see if they're bad too. We usually don't let Duke walk on the floor until it's dry. That's pretty scary. The warning should have been much larger. I guess they cared more about selling than people's animals. That's sad.

[ramanth]

Originally posted by G.P.girl
is just the wetjet bad? i use the normal swiffer thing with the wetwipes you put on the ends
Same here. I don't use it very often...only when I'm expecting company (which is rare) or if the house is really filthy. I'll check the label on the wet wipes tonight.

[Jetta_Pup]

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_swiffer_wetjet.htm

this story is going around alot of dif forums lately and a woman from a forum im on found this.

[Blustang24]

Well that article brings a whole new light on it all I suppose. Hmm...

[Sevens]

Actually, one of my husband's friends looked up some info on Swiffer Wet and this is what he came up with:

All,

Ok, this scared me a bit, and combined with some natural
curiosity and distrust of internet gossip, I decided to educate
myself. Here's what I learned. Please feel free to make
corrections (especially if you have a strong Chemistry
background)

Proctol & Gamble has a "Material Data Saftey Sheet", or
MSDS, available for most of their products. These things
tell you what's in the products, how it's expected to be
used/handled, etc., available here:

http://www.pg.com/content/pdf/01_about_pg/msds/fabric_and_homecare/household_cleaners/SwifferWet.pdf

This indicates that the active cleaning agent in swiffer wet
is 1-4% Propylene Glycol n-Propyl Ether.

The chemical profile for this substance is located here:
http://www.intox.org/databank/documents/chemical/prpglnme/cie178.htm

CAS info here:
http://www.arb.ca.gov/db/solvents/solvent_pages/Glycol_Ethers-HTML/pgnpe.htm

CDC Toxicology profile for Propylene Glycol
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp96.html
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts96.html

Propylene Glycol is related to Ethylene Glycol (antifreeze), however
Propylene Glycol is considered safe and is used in food, and is
broken down very quickly. Propylene Glycol esthers are related
closely to Propylene Glycol(don't ask me how though). This chemical
evaporates quickly and does not leave a residue on the floors (kind
of like rubbing alcohol).

It IS toxic (as most solvents are) when swallowed, however, it requires
something on the order of 2.8 g/kg of body weight to be considered a
high dose and begin to show some evidence of kidney injury. A 25lb
dog is 11.33 kg. Such an animal would need to consume 31.724 grams
to have a have a mimimal high dose.

(31.724 grams * 100)/4 = 793 grams
At a 4% concentration, it would take 793 grams of swiffer fluid to
reach the high dose level. That's 1.748lbs of fluid. A Gallon is 8lbs,
so:

((1.748/8)*100) = 21.85% of a gallon = 3.496 cups.

The animal would need to have ingested nearly 3.5 cups of swiffer
wet fluid to have some evidence of kidney injury. And the effect is
not cumulative (except for topical irritation), so it would have to
have been ingested in a relatively short span of time. Using the
same math, a 9lb cat would have needed to drink 1.35 cups of
swiffer wet to reach the g/kg level required for toxicity, and a 75lb
dog would need to drink 11.25 cups.

Even if my methodology here was wrong (% by volume or % by
weight sort of issue, and it may well be, I'm no chem major),
it seems pretty clear to me the results would still indicate the
need for a fairly large amount of swiffer fluid to be swallowed
in a short amount of time to cause a problem.

I'm sorry for their loss, but unless proctor & gamble had a big
manufacturing error and bumped that 4% up close to 100%,
or they left the container open for the animals to drink from,
I just don't see how swiffers would have anything to do with it.

Not to say there wasn't something in the environment
causing a problem, just that the science doesn't support
this as the cause.

[Denyce]

I had a feeling as soon as I started reading this that it was a hoax. You just have to think about it. Would a company such a Procter and Gamble put themselves at such a huge liability? If it was unsafe in normal usage for pet then it would be for babies.

But on another product I have seen advertised. I have to wonder about this new cleaning product...I think by Clorox...that has teflon in it. I mean...we know teflon is toxic to birds when heated up....so what effect does it have on our lungs and the environment to be spraying it about in the air on your tubs and toilets?

I think we use way to many chemicals in our everyday lives...the world would be much better if we as a whole just cut back by 10 percent the amount of garbage we spray into the atmosphere. Like perfumes for example. *LOL*

Denyce

[QueenScoopalot]

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/swiffer.asp I take things like this 'with a grain of salt'. I don't use the Swiffer Wet Jet. I have one of the Grab-It whatever ya call it (?) and hardly even use that. I clean mostly with bleach and water. FYI I have heard that any cleaning product with an "sol/oil" ending such as Lysol, Lestoil etc. are toxic, but haven't researched that through snopes etc. yet. No time to clean anyway! :rolleyes:

[smokey the elder]

Propylene glycol (PG) is generally recognized as safe, GRAS. It shows up in food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. You wouldn't want to eat a lot of it, but small amounts are harmless to humans and other animals.

ETHYLENE glycol, on the other hand, is a deadly poison. It is one of the few poisons with a sweet taste.

Didn't intend to hijack; I just had to stick my chemist $0.02 in.

The Swiffer thing smelled like a hoax even before I got to the post that revealed it as such. There are rules about products like that, after all.

[Karen]

Answer from the manufacturer (posted to an email list)

We're glad you came to us for the facts about Swiffer WetJet. All our products have been evaluated by internal and external
veterinarians and scientists, and Swiffer WetJet and Swiffer Wet cloths are safe to use around pets. Let us assure you, this rumor is completely false. Our Wet cloths and WetJet liquid solution cleaners
do not contain antifreeze or any ingredient similar to it.

We have pets too and their health is very important to us. We hope you'll help us put an end to this rumor by letting others know the
truth.

[shais_mom]

This was in an email I got from the
ASPCA.


THE VERDICT’S IN ON SWIFFER WET JET RUMOR
Last week at the ASPCA, we received an influx of calls and letters from concerned pet owners regarding a widely distributed e-mail claiming that the chemicals in the Swiffer Wet Jet cleaning product caused liver failure in a dog and two cats. We immediately checked with our experts at the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center (APCC), and are relieved to be able to set the record straight.

The Swiffer Wet Jet System contains water, propylene glycol n-butyl and isopropyl alcohol. According to APCC veterinary toxicologists, the ingredients in Swiffer Wet Jet 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 differs from ethylene glycol, the potentially toxic ingredient present in most antifreeze products that causes kidney, not liver, failure.

The APCC will continue to monitor this situation, and we will post any updates in ASPCA News Alert as necessary. For more information on how to protect your pet from potentially dangerous substances, please visit APCC online.

[slleipnir]

I duno if this is still going around, but my vet says it's false. She said the thing they say that's in it that causes liver failure..it's not in it, it's really something else I just dont remember the names. Also, it would cause kidney failure not liver so the story doesn't make sense.

Just thought I'd post that incase ppl were still curious about it..

[robinh]

As soon as I read this I went to snopes.com too. Thank heavens it's a hoax, I've used these in the past.