Swiffer

[Guest guest]

At 06:12 PM 5/20/2004, you wrote:

>Someone sent this to me today.

>It sounds hard to believe but nothing surprises me anymore...

 

Whenever those alarm bells go off, especially on forwarded messages, it's a

good idea to go to http://snopes.com and see if it's a hoax. Most often it is.

 

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

 

The Swiffer WetJet poses a general danger to household pets.

 

Status: False.

 

Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2004]

=========

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 antifreeze 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.

========

 

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:

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 P & G'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 deicing 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 n-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 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 that 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.

 

On its web site, Procter and Gamble explains its Swiffer WetJet cleaning

system as an all-in-one, ready-to-use mopping system. According to the

entry in its " Swiffer Q & A " section devoted to the question of whether the

product is safe to use around pets:

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.

 

In direct response to the e-mail's charge, Procter and Gamble has posted a

rebuttal:

There is a false Internet rumor circulating rapidly among pet owners

alleging that Swiffer WetJet may contain antifreeze and is harmful to pets.

The Wet cloths and WetJet liquid solution cleaners do not contain

antifreeze or any ingredient similar to it. In fact, all Swiffer products

are safe to use around pets.

 

We evaluated the Swiffer Wet cloths and WetJet cleaners to ensure they're

safe ­ a fact confirmed by the ASPCA, independent veterinarians and

scientists. In fact, for nearly five years, people in over 38 million U.S.

homes have safely used Swiffer products on everything from the kitchen and

living room floors to tables and ceiling fans.

 

We have pets too, and their health and well-being is very important to us.

Please help us stop this rumor by sharing the truth with others.

 

The ASPCA's Animal Poison Control Center has 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.

 

Last updated: 17 May 2004