Swiffer Wetjet!!! - Scary News! Please Read!

mysweetpeasWil&Wes wrote: This may have been posted before, but a friend of mine just emailed it to me!! I don't use this product, but something very similar!! Wil is still crawling, so I'm sorta freaking out! I only use it when I'm in a hurry, otherwise I use Murphy Oil Soap to mop our floors...anyone know if that's okay??

WARNING: IF YOU KNOW ANYONE WITH A TODDLER CRAWLING
> AROUND THE HOUSE AND/OR THEY HAVE A HOUSE PET.
> PLEASE FORWARD THIS ON.
> Recently a neighbor had their 5-year old German
> shepherd dog put down due to liver failure. The dog
> was completely healthy until a few weeks ago. 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
> possible.
> EVEN IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AN INFANT OR OWN A PET,
> PLEASE FORWARD THIS ON.

moped replied: I have heard about this before!

Mommy2BAK replied: WOW. Thanks for sharing Rae, I just bought one about a month ago, but I don't think I will be using it anymore.

Sarah&Mackenzie replied: I didn't know that thanks. We use it and our dog is fine. I will have to look at the packaging when I get home after work.

Boys r us replied: Wow..I don't know what I would do without my wetjet! I used mine on my hardwood when Brae was crawling and we never had any problems..I wonder if this is true?

mom21kid2dogs replied:
Nope, it's not. It's an urband legend that has circulated for a while (including on here before, IIRC)

mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied: I know, could be one of those email false warning things...but still! It did always make me wonder since it leaves a little film along the floors...but what doesn't, right? Scary.

mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied:
Oh sorry...I'm still throwing mine out though.

MyLuvBugs replied: Yep. Some ladies at my company sent this out a week ago, and I promptly threw out mine. My poor cats. Lord only knows what kinda of damage they've had so far.

My2Beauties replied: Guys this is not true! This a a myth, honestly if this happened the news would be all over it all over America, the product would have been recalled! Really - don't throw it away! This stuff happens via email all the time!

Rae I know you were just putting it out here because it's scary, I believed it the first time I read it, but there are sites dedicated to busting these myths. Call the number on the Swiffer package, I guarantee they can answer any questions you have! The product is totally safe, think about it - it's just the same as any other floor cleaning project, animals have been around that stuff for many many years!

I just don't want you guys throwing away something you paid for on an untruth!

MyLuvBugs replied:
The only way to really know is if you have one, read the labels and see if there is a warning that it may be harmful to small pets and children. Then Call the company and see what they say.

The ingredients aren't exactly antifreeze. However, its supposed to be 1 molecule away from antifreeze.

Personally, I don't want to take a chance on my cats or Lorelei's safety. I'd rather use water to clean my floors, and if I have to do it by hand, then that's what I'll have to do.

MyBlueEyedBabies replied: this is from snopes. I have seen this e-mail before and did what I always do with these kinds of e-mails and looked it up on snopes first



Swiffer WetJet


Claim: The Swiffer WetJet poses a general danger to dogs and other household pets.

Status: False.

Example: [Collected via e-mail, 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 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 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 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.
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 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 Centeralso 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.

MyLuvBugs replied: Here. This might help:
http://www.showcatsonline.com/x/swiffer.htm

It does contain an ingredient that is used in antifreeze, but it's supposedly not harmful.

toady_buckshot_noodle replied: I don't see how it could be any worse than using Pine Sol. My dog almost died from eating Borax though.

redchief replied:
The Swiffer Wetjet email is false as shown above. Borax, however, is deadly.

Shanna replied: Thanks for the clarification of this e-mail. I received it years ago and have not used Swiffer in my home because of it. I own a Wetjet at at my office and love it and wished I could use it at home, but was afraid because of my animals. I will consider using it now. I do use the Wet Cloths and love those.

redchief replied:
Download the Swiffer Wet MSDS in the "Borax and other Common Household Chemicals" post. Swiffer uses a relatively benign active ingredient.

A&A'smommy replied: If you get a forward don't read it 99% of the time its false if you want to read it then check snopes before you believe it!