Plug-In Stinkers (And Others) Taken Off Shelves
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 09.27.07
We always thought those things you plug into a wall receptacle to "freshen" the room were a waste of electricity. Why do people spend money on that stuff? The explanation has to be that many of us live lives of stinky desperation. Maybe they wouldn't feel so crappy if they took a breath of actual fresh air once in awhile. Or, cleaned out the cat box more often.
"Managers at 111 Walgreens stores in Minnesota and thousands more nationwide pulled three types of air fresheners off their shelves over the weekend, after advocacy groups reported that some sprays, gels and plug-in fresheners contain potentially hazardous chemicals."
"The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) tested 14 air fresheners from a retail store and reported that most of them contained "a veritable cocktail" of compounds, including some that have been linked to development problems in babies and breathing difficulties in adults."
""The decision was to get them off the shelves if there was any chance that they were dangerous," said Walgreens spokeswoman Carol Hively, who said the directive affects 5,850 stores nationwide. "We'll have an independent study done to see what that shows.""
Here's another mystery. The people that design and market these things. Do they use them personally? How else to explain bad ideas being recycled and emulated.
Here's the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) press release on it. The sampling results from 14 brands are here [pdf file] Via::Minneapolis Star Tribune Image credit:: Oh My Apartment, Cat Litter Box
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Toxic? No shit. Those things are hell on my asthma.
When I have company, I scent my house the natural way -- with bread baking in my bread machine, onions frying on the stove, or (seasonally) cider or wine mulling in the slow cooker.
I've never really understood air fresheners. With most you're just covering the scent, and I always figured my home doesn't need more chemicals in it. Makes so much more sense to open a window if the weather permits or find something that smells good naturally if you can't open the windows.
If Walgreens starts taking products off its shelves that have any chance of being dangerous, they have a lot of work ahead of them.
Hey, it's easy to *say* "clean the litter box more often"...
Actually, if you use the catbox in the picture it's much easier... we love that catbox in our household. You just roll it over, using clumping cat littler, and it catches the clumps in a little drawer you pull out (that's what the handle to the right of the cat in the picture is). Petco and PetSmart are good places to look for it.
And yeah, really happy to hear those stupid air fresheners are going off the market, they give me migraines. If you really need to scent a room, try picking up one of those ceramic circle things that rest on the top of lightbulbs (assuming you have any incandescents you're still using, for dimmable/3-way lamps not big enough for the huge florescent alternatives), put a few drops of essential oil on it, and you have the same effect with much less poison in the air.
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