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Lawmakers in New York City may soon ban Tide detergent pods and other laundry and dishwasher products under a bill introduced this month. According to the New York Post, the “Pods Are Plastic Bill” would make it illegal to sell laundry detergent pods and laundry sheets that are made with polyvinyl alcohol. Fines for selling these products would begin at $400, double for a second violation, and $1,200 if violated more than two times.Reportedly, the bill, if it became law, would not take effect until Jan. 1, 2026.The bill, introduced by City Councilman James Gennaro (D) last week, is part...

New York City could soon ban detergent pods across the five boroughs in the latest “green” push from lawmakers. The “Pods are Plastic Bill,” introduced by City Councilman James Gennaro last week, would make it illegal to sell any pods and laundry sheets if they’re made with polyvinyl alcohol. Fines for selling the pods would start at $400, double for a second violation and top off at $1,200 for flouting the rules more than twice, if the bill becomes law. The bill would also require education and outreach to businesses on the ban for the first year. The law wouldn’t...

Procter & Gamble has apologized for “any false connotations” after stirring anger in Germany for unintentionally placing a neo-Nazi code on promotional packages for its Ariel laundry detergent. Outraged shoppers had posted pictures online of Ariel powder boxes featuring a white soccer jersey with a large number “88.” The number is sensitive because far-right extremists in Germany often use it as a code to skirt a ban on the use of Nazi slogans in public: since “H” is the eighth letter of the alphabet, “88” represents the phrase “Heil Hitler.” Similarly, “18” is used to stand for “A.H.” or Adolf...

<p>The culprit: single-dose detergent capsules that can have a candy-like appearance. In the past year, they were involved in roughly 10,000 cases of exposure involving young children...</p> <p>Three years ago, officials at an Italian poison-control center in Milan contacted P&G to report that children were biting into small packets of a P&G concentrated liquid detergent called Dash Ecodosi. The Milan officials advised P&G to make the capsules' packaging opaque and harder to open, said Fabrizio Sesana, a toxicologist at the Milan poison center.</p>

According to Rick Newman of US News and World Report, America’s consumer confidence continues to rise, and their out of pocket spending has been solid. Yet credit card spending has not risen, and incomes have not risen either. So what’s going on? Newman explains: “The answer may lie in the large ‘underground’ economy that doesn’t show up in official statistics.” In others words, Americans, tired of taxation, may be engaging in an enormous black market. Newman quotes Bernard Baumohl of the Economic Outlook Group stating, “We suspect the destructive nature of the last downturn and the prolonged weak recovery pushed...

Nanodiamonds, pieces of carbon less than ten-thousandths the diameter of a human hair, have been found to help loosen crystallized fat from surfaces in a project led by research chemists at the University of Warwick that transforms the ability of washing powders to shift dirt in eco friendly low temperature laundry cycles. These new findings tackle a problem that forces consumers to wash some of their laundry at between 60 and 90 degrees centigrade more than 80 times a year. Even with modern biological washing powders, some fats and dirt cannot be removed at the lower temperatures many prefer to...

Law enforcement officials across the country are puzzled over a crime wave targeting an unlikely item: Tide laundry detergent. Theft of Tide detergent has become so rampant that authorities from New York to Oregon are keeping tabs on the soap spree, and some cities are setting up special task forces to stop it. And retailers like CVS are taking special security precautions to lock down the liquid. One Tide taker in West St. Paul, Minn., made off with $25,000 in the product over 15 months before he was busted last year. “That was unique that he stole so much soap,”...

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...

Everything is grubby in countries run by statist moonbats — even dishes fresh out of the dishwasher. A couple of months ago, Sandra Young from Vernon, Fla., started to notice that something was seriously amiss with her dishes. "The pots and pans were gray, the aluminum was starting to turn black, the glasses had fingerprints and lip prints still on them, and they were starting to get this powdery look to them," Vernon says. "I'm like, oh, my goodness, my dishwasher must be dying, I better get a new dishwasher." But others are having the same problem all across the...

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Unilever's Omo detergent is adding an unusual ingredient to its two-pound detergent box in Brazil: a GPS device that allows its promotions agency Bullet to track shoppers and follow them to their front doors. Starting next week, consumers who buy one of the GPS-implanted detergent boxes will be surprised at home, given a pocket video camera as a prize and invited to bring their families to enjoy a day of Unilever-sponsored outdoor fun. The promotion, called Try Something New With Omo, is in keeping with the brand's international "Dirt is Good" positioning that encourages parents...

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...

The first oil-covered birds are being seen on the Gulf shore as well as further out. One bird, a gannet, which is normally white with a yellow head and long, pointed beak was covered in thick, black oil. The rescuers are cleaning the bird at Fort Jackson, a historic landmark about 70 miles southeast of New Orleans. Rescuers are expecting to be busy for a long time cleaning the birds and other wildlife with Dawn detergent, which seems to work best. Hopefully, they can save many of the otherwise doomed creatures from this huge disaster. There are over 400 species...

Making your own detergent is a great way to save money on doing your laundry. You get a lot more bang for your buck! I started with the powdered detergent and just got brave enough last weekend to try the liquid. It was a LOT easier than I thought. Powdered detergent 1 cup Borax 1 cup Washing soda 1 bar of soap (I prefer Fels Naptha which is a laundry soap.) Grate the bar of soap. Combine all three ingredients in blender and mix well. I used 2 Tbsp for a normal load of laundry and 3 if I was...

SPOKANE, Wash. – The quest for squeaky-clean dishes has turned some law-abiding people in Spokane into dishwater-detergent smugglers. They are bringing Cascade or Electrasol in from out of state because the eco-friendly varieties required under Washington state law don't work as well. Spokane County became the launch pad last July for the nation's strictest ban on dishwasher detergent made with phosphates, a measure aimed at reducing water pollution. The ban will be expanded statewide in July 2010, the same time similar laws take effect in several other states. But it's not easy to get sparkling dishes when you go green.

I was being interviewed on talk radio a couple of weeks ago when the “talent” turned the discussion to my faith and my thoughts on the state of the Church in America. I’m sitting there thinking, “You invited me on your show to talk about school violence and student stupidity, and now we’re talking about Jesus? Okay, whatever. God is one of my favorite topics, and as long as I get to plug my latest book, A Time to Clash, 757 times in the next 15 minutes, I’m good.” So, I informed my host that my faith was stonkin’ and...

Japan has a population groaning under the threat of suicide. Not only are people committing suicide, but the new Internet fad of mixing detergent and bath lotion is threatening to kill or sicken people around them. Heads up on a new fad of the Internet, a new method of suicide. On Thurday, at least 350 people were evacuated in Northern Japan because of a suicide using the newest method of detergent and bath lotion. The fumes had escaped and was feared to harm neighbors.