Barb Wilkie's EHN Website
Last updated 2008

A lot of time has passed since Julia's compilation of info was made available as a one-page flyer. (Julia's document -- http://ehnca.org/ehnfs.htm -- formated for the www, prints out as three pages on my printer, without the following note and product info -- I've not mastered the art of PDF files).

I've checked the phone numbers and I've built links to the respective web pages. They are acurate as of this date ... just as they've been accurate down through the years. Use them. Procter and Gamble told me today that they "haven't had any complaints." Lever Bros. line is so busy, I've been told twice to call back.

Please, please, log your reports with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (http://www.cpsc.gov/). They have reports from 1990 on, but they have no category for just fabvic softeners. To report an unsafe product, go to http://www.cpsc.gov/talk.html, where you'll find ways for you as a consumer or your physician or health care professional to file complaints about unsafe products. CPSC has assured me they do want to hear about fabric softeners.

If we ALL don't call CPSC to register the negative impacts caused by fabric softners --and other commonly used consumer products -- upon our health, we cannot blame anyone but ourselves. These products are made to waft so far and wide they invade the air of everyone in a neighborhood, regardless of underlying health conditions. And if outgassing while used in the laundry isn't enough, these products continue to volatilize to affect all, while being worn. That kind of air pollution makes a mockery of the phrase IT'S A PERSONAL DECISION to use highly scented products.

Only a few people go to emergency rooms yearly with reactions to fabric treatment products, which includes fabric softeners, as well as products like Febreze and Scotchguard. We have no idea of how many lives are negatively impacted, but like me, find the hospital emergency room the very last place they choose to go in a health crisis.

If you don't call or fill out CPSC's form on-line , regarding fabric softeners, they'll not have a clue as to how many people really are adversely affected by the chemicals in these products. To show that the CPSC does work on behalf of public health, they undertook a rulemaking procedure on Feb. 14, 2001 regarding lead-wick candles. The consumers with public health complaints were the catalyst. (See "CPSC Votes to Begin Rulemaking to Ban Candles With Lead Wicks- Major Retailers Agree to Not Sell Lead Wick Candles" at http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml01/01083.html

Now, you may ask, what has inspired my resurgence on the topic of fabric softeners. Fair question. Earlier this morning I called in to P&G because I keep getting inundated in my neighborhood by neighbors' fabric softeners. I told them I saw no reason for in individuals personal decision to use a product like fabric softeners should automatically mean that I have to inhale those chemicals.

But, today I suffered another assault. A real doozy! In the past, I've been zapped while my husband was driving along city streets with a window rolled down (we now know not to enjoy the "fresh air" near the various laundromats). I have also been hit when passing a private residence and someone is using a highly scented fabric softeners, and that, of course, makes driving a challenge when spouse wants window down and I, the MCSer, wants it up . . . we try to compromise.

But today, driving alone and no one by myself to blame, I must admit I had a most unusual assaualt -- even by my standards! And I tried to keep that in mind as the doubt more then crept into the voice of the customer service rep when I called in my complaint this afternoon to Procter and Gamble ... couldn't get through to Lever Bros. Even though I stated it was fabric softener in general, and not specifically Downey this time, I wanted him to log the fact that I suffered this assault due to fabric softeners. I assured him that while I can tell fabric softeners, I cannot pick out the brand by taste and smell. Eventually, it seemed as though he logged my complaint, but who knows? I also asked if fabric softeners have been reformuated to waft further and he replied that he didn't know, but he did know that they changed perfumes from time to time.

But, back to the latest assault that led to my digging up MSDS info below.

I was driving along I-980 freeway (at 55 mph) in Oakland, no trucks around and relatively few cars, opened a window to a beautiful day ... something I seldom do unless in the country. And it was just my luck to be inundated by fabric softener(s) from somewhere. I don't know if at street level there was a laundromat or an apartment house or just a home laundry, but I can guarantee everyone that I was blasted by fabric softner.

I suffered an instant headache behind my left eye, my left sinus cavity is now in pain, which has grown worse since that happened at 11 a.m. (it's now 3:14 p.m. 3/7/01). Fortunately I rolled up the window quickly, threw on the air conditioner full blast -- lower temps lower the voliatilizing of the chemicals -- and after traveling a bit, I rolled down the window again to blow out the residual. I also drove holding the base of my left index finger and altered that with pinching the web between index finger and thumb on my left hand. Both are acupressure tricks that help my sinuses and help mitigate a headache. Fortunately, I was able to quickly take evasive action ... and thanks to having left a toxic workplace and undergoing chiropractic and acupuncture treatments, I'm not as severely sensitive to the chemical assaults as I used to be. Otherwise, I may have blacked out as I used to do. (I didn't drive then.) I trust my knowledge of how my body reacts also helped spare me a more serious reaction to those synthetic chemicals.

As easy as it is to detect fabric softeners in the ambient air, so is it easy to detect that I was not being believed when I stated that I developed a headache, sinus pain and that I could taste fabric softeners while traveling along a freeway at 55 mph.

So, because of my experience, I not only bring assurance that the phone numbers on Julia's document still work, I bring you info off of MSDS. Now, all you have to do is use this information wisely. And complain where it may do some good: To CPSC. On second thought, also complain to your Air Resources Board, local and state. And, in the SF Bay Area, try writing to the head of Bay Area Air Quality Management District asking that BAAQMD start regulating the emissions of air polluting fabric softeners. Write:

William Norton
Executive Officer/Air Pollution Control Officer
Bay Area Air Quality Management District
939 Ellis Street
San Francisco, CA 94109

E-mail: exec@baaqmd.gov