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MALIBU (CBS) — The 32-year-old restaurant dishwasher who was found in a pool of his own blood outside Guido’s in Malibu apparently died from an upper respiratory disease, authorities said. Carlos Ivan Rodas was found dead Sunday night just steps from the door of Guido’s in the Malibu County Mart shopping center at Pacific Coast Highway and Cross Creek Road, according to sheriff’s deputies and a coroner’s spokesman. Rodas’ death was first reported as a stabbing, then as a brutal beating. Officials later said they believed Rodas died of natural causes, despite the large amount of blood found at the...

Have you noticed a white film on your dishes in recent months? As we first reported earlier this year, the reason is a new environmental law. Most manufacturers have reformulated their dishwasher detergents after laws limiting phosphates went into effect last year. Julie Schimpf of Ft Thomas, Kentucky showed me how bad her dishes looked. Julie said "there's this frosty, filmy look on the top and bottom and it won't go away. I'm finding the same film here on the edges of my plates." Complaints Nationwide Our partners at Consumer Reports Magazine have heard many of the same complaints, from...

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE, Wash., Experts identified a metal plate that fell onto the second-floor roof of a Washington state fourplex as a dishwasher part, but its origins are a mystery. Mark Kauffmann, who heard the object land on the roof of his Mountlake Terrace building about 7 p.m. Feb. 9, said he called officials at nearby Paine Field, who took the panel and determined it did not drop from an airplane, The (Everett) Herald reported Thursday. Kauffmann said the mystery only deepened when workers at the Appliance Recycling Outlet in Snohomish recognized the object as the reversible front panel from a...

Pittsburgh isn’t even in the Chesapeake watershed. However, like everywhere else apparently phosphates have disappeared from dishwasher detergents. The result is dishes that aren’t particularly clean and feel ‘slimy’. After some checking, I found that the disappeared phosphate content in dishwasher detergent was around six percent. On a recent visit to the plumbing supply store to get some parts, I found that they still had one pound boxes of the real TSP (trisodium phosphate Na3PO4); not the fake ersatz 'TSP' stuff that Home Depot is only selling. In fact, the real TSP is still available all over the net. Not...

To go with toilets that don't flush and light bulbs that don't light, we now have dishwashers that don't wash. In the last six months, a lot of people have suddenly discovered their dishwashers don’t work as well as they used to. The problem, though, isn’t the dishwashers. It’s the soap. Last July, acceding to pressure from environmentalists, America’s dishwasher detergent manufacturers decided to change their formulas. And the new detergents stink. One of the key ingredients in dish detergent is (or was) phosphorus. Phosphorus is a sociable element, bonding easily and well with others. In detergent, it strips food...

It was not heavily advertised, but earlier this year dishwashing detergent makers reworked their formulas to comply with environmental regulations banning phosphates. NPR reports that consumers are starting to get very frustrated: Sue Wright from Austin, Texas, says for months her cups and glasses have been coming out of her year-old dishwasher covered with black specks. She called three repairmen to her kitchen, but her dishes were still dirty. "I looked at a plumber's rear end for about two months this summer sticking out from under my sink," Wright says. "I was just totally frustrated. I couldn't figure out what...

Baltimore - A ban that's designed to protect the Chesapeake Bay from a dangerous pollutant went into effect more than a month ago and you may not even noticed. That ban impacts the detergent we all use in our dishwashers. ABC2 News Investigator Joce Sterman explains what's been cut out of the cleaning product and where we found banned items out for sale. She's got kids, a career and still has to make time to do those households chores. It's obvious Lutherville’s Jenny Atwater is a busy mom with plenty on her plate. She says, “I hate unloading the dishwasher...

BREMERTON, Wash. — Washington and Oregon are banning the sale of phosphate-laden dishwasher detergent starting Thursday. The Kitsap Sun reports that familiar brands are still available but they will have lower levels of phosphates. Experts say phosphates promote plant growth and may degrade water quality in lakes and streams. The ban has already been in place in Spokane and Whatcom counties in Washington state since 2008. Some shoppers in Spokane had been crossing into Idaho to buy the older soaps.

BREMERTON, Wash. - Washington and Oregon are banning the sale of phosphate-laden dishwasher detergent starting Thursday. Familiar brands are still available but they will have lower levels of phosphates. Experts say phosphates promote plant growth and may degrade water quality in lakes and streams. "It's more effective and less expensive to decrease what goes down the drain than it is to treat it at the plant. This way, we're all part of the solution," said Washington Rep. Timm Ormsby, D-Spokane, told the Kitsap Sun. Ormbsy sponsored the 2006 bill to limit phosphates in dishwasher detergents. The ban has already been...

About a third of the money in Ohio's appliance-rebate program is still available for anyone looking for a discount on several types of home appliances. That includes dishwashers, for which the allotted money had been exhausted quickly through reserved rebates. However, some reservations have expired unused, allowing other consumers to get in on the program. "We did for a day or so have what appeared to be a zero for dishwashers," said Nadine Howard, director of Ohio's Energy Resources Division. "The numbers we're seeing now are a little more true." As of Thursday, there had been 47,579 redemptions overall, with...

I just opened up a new bottle of Cascade dishwashing gel and lo-and-behold it's physically different. Looking at the bottle, I see it's the "phosphate-free" crap my mom has been complaining about recently.

ROMANCE, Ark. - An 18-month-old boy died Wednesday of suspected heat exposure after he climbed into a dishwasher that started running, police said. Authorities are still investigating, but said it appeared the boy's death was accidental. "This is probably the hardest, most emotional scene that these investigators will ever work," said Chief Deputy Jeremy Clark of the White County sheriff's office. Blake Kurck was found dead in his home near the White County town of Romance at about 1 p.m. Wednesday, the sheriff's office said. The boy's 13-year-old brother found him inside the appliance, which was running, authorities said. "The...

General Electric is recalling two-and-a-half million dishwashers because of a wiring problem that could cause a fire. The recall includes GE dishwashers sold under the brands Eterna, GE, GE Profile, GE Monogram, Hotpoint, and Sears Kenmore. The brand name is printed on the dishwasher's front control panel. The dishwashers come in many colors or stainless steel. They were sold through department and appliance stores between September 1997 through December 2001 for about $400. GE received nearly 200 complaints of overheating, including 12 fires caused by the washers. There were 56 reports of property damage. The problem: liquid rinse-aid can leak...

SEDALIA, Mo. (AP) - The new residents of a Sedalia duplex were surprised to learn a 4-foot-6-inch constrictor didn't move out when the old residents left. The family made the discovery Sunday when the ball python slithered out from under the dishwasher. The snakes like warm, humid air, making the dishwasher a perfect place to hide. Stefanie Leafty had just told her two children - ages 5 and 3 - to get ready for bed when she saw something on the floor underneath the dishwasher. "I thought it was a toy, and I was going to pick it up," she...

Over and over again, as Sarasota dermatologist Mark Burnett examined patients' legs for skin cancer, he would find the telltale scars on their shins that usually came from one under-acknowledged home hazard: the open dishwasher door. "All dermatologists have known about this for years, but nothing has been done about it," said Burnett. Burnett decided there was a market niche he could fill. He designed a safety device for open dishwasher doors, which he has patented as the Shinsafe appliance safety device. It comes with built-in adhesive backing. You insert two AA batteries and stick Shinsafe onto the outside top...

STOCKHOLM - A customer in an international hamburger chain outlet in western Sweden lost his appetite when he discovered the restaurant's toilet seats were being washed in its dishwasher alongside the kitchen utensils. The man noticed on a visit to the bathroom in the restaurant in Arvika, Sweden, that all the toilet seats had been removed. When he asked staff about the missing seats, an employee took them out of a dishwasher where they had been cleaned together with trays and kitchen utensils, the Swedish TT news agency reported on Thursday, quoting the regional newspaper Nya Wermlands-Tidningen. The employee tried...