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

[Guest guest]

Claim: 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:

a.. 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. "

b.. 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.

Although ethylene glycol is commonly used in antifreeze and deicing solutions

and has been identified as posing a danger to pets, the compound listed in the

WetJet MSDS, propylene glycol, is a distinctly different substance. Propylene

glycol is also sometimes used in antifreeze solutions, but it 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. Propylene glycol is also an

ingredient used in many, many different brands and types of household cleaning

products, so if it 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.

c.. 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.

Additional information:

Swiffer Pet Rumor

(Procter & Gamble)

Last updated: 12 May 2004

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