Clorox recalls cleaning products that may contain bacteria

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — If you’re thinking of wiping down your kitchen with that bottle of Pine-Sol all-purpose cleaner under your sink — stop. It may contain bacteria that could cause serious illness in people with compromised immune systems.

Oakland, California-based Clorox said Tuesday it has recalled its scented multi-surface cleaners and all-purpose cleaners. The recall doesn’t include its iconic original pine-scented Pine-Sol, which is its only product registered as a disinfectant.

The recalled products also include scented CloroxPro Pine-Sol All Purpose Cleaners and Clorox Professional Pine-Sol Lemon Fresh Cleaners, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said in a statement.

The products “may contain bacteria, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an environmental organism found widely in soil and water,” the commission said.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-california-product-safety-oakland-57abb29d59e935d0f00392c5f8b9e25a

[cstanleytech]

1. Interesting side note the Pine-Sol sold these days in stores is not actually the real deal.

Why? A few years ago they eliminated the pine oil from which it took its name.

[ProfessorGAC]

19. Way More Than A Few Years Ago

I've been in several clorox manufacturing sites. A few made the Pine Sol line.
There was no pine oil in the formulas I saw.
There's a good reason. Pine oil barely aids in the cleaning process. There's just a tiny bit of lignosulfonate in Pine oil, nearly none after refinement. Lignosulfonates are a quite weak surfactant. Soap is far better, and synthetic detergents even moreso.
The pine oil was more a fragrance, which has been replaced by pine extracts in ethanol.
As a result of displacing the pine oil with small amount of 2 primary surfactants, the cleaning efficacy actually improved.
So, "real deal" or not, it's actually now a better cleaning product.

[SergeStorms]

2. It can always be used....

as a "cure" for COVID.

[Bayard]

3. Rut roh......

I think I might have some of those. How does bacteria live in that kind of environment though?

[wnylib]

10. Yeah, not a good advertisement for any

items claiming to be disinfectants.

[quakerboy]

14. Came here thinking this.

Publicly admitting that your cleaning chemicals.. not just dont always deal with bacteria.. but can actually harbor them. OOF.

[wnylib]

15. Makes me glad that my cleaning products are Lysol.

[JCMach1]

29. Concentrated Odoban for me... Saves tons of money, too

[wnylib]

30. Never heard of it.

[JCMach1]

31. If you have pets, you need it... Best stuff on the market

https://odoban.com/what-is-odoban/

[wnylib]

32. Thanks, will try it out.

[Gore1FL]

16. The disinfectants aren't involved in the recall. Only the cleaners. nt

[wnylib]

17. OK, but still not a good image for a company that does make disinfectants.

[niyad]

4. My cleaning products are baking soda and vinegar.

[ProfessorGAC]

20. Sorry To Hear That

The surface chemistry, both in theory and experimentally, establish that surface active agents are orders of magnitude superior to formulas containing no surface chemistry altering components.
Baking powder is a decent scouring agent but actually cleans nothing at the surface, especially microscopic fatty & protenaceous soils.
Vinegar is the same, but because water often has mineral that deposit on the surface as the solvent (water) evaporates, the vinegar can cause ion exchange to soluble salts that wipe off more efficiently. But, I does nothing to sequester soils or reduce surface tension, the 2 critical factors in effective cleaning.
I spent decades understanding the physical chemistry of these species, so this is not an opinion. It's scientific fact.

[niyad]

24. Since I am highly sensitive to chemicals, I use what I can. Headaches,

nausea and dizzyness are not fun.

[ProfessorGAC]

26. Just Use Any Laundry Detergent

For hard surface cleaning, dilute to about 10 to 1. Make sure it's an economy brand with little to no lipase (fat breaking enzyme.)
The main ingredients in most commercial laundry brands are the sodium salts of alkylaryl sulfonic acid & polyether sulfuric acids.
Almost nobody is sensitive to those, and skin drying will be minimal with a very dilute solution.

[niyad]

27. Thank you for that information.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

6. I always get the brown bottle

Of concentrated pine sol with the pine oil.
They still sell it.
My mom used it,I use it because it does the job.. The other stuff is a floor wash does not disinfect.
Plus the pine sol concentrate comes in a smaller bottle than the other floor washes.
Since its concentrated you can vary how strong of a mix you want to mop with.

[truthisfreedom]

7. Seems like "Clorox" implies chlorine...

A very strong disinfectant. Why don’t all of their products contain chlorine?

[Hekate]

9. Probably because they bought out the Pine-Sol company to maximize their profits

[ProfessorGAC]

21. Many Do

Pinesol was based on an old home formula. There are some terpenes in pine oil that have VERY weak disinfecting properties. (Almost negligible on viruses.)
It's a legacy product and they didn't want to get rid of it. Just made some formula changes to improve cleaning properties some years back.
Their other products contain quaternary compounds with a ions that are POWERFUL antimicrobial.
Know what Clorix doesn't use to keep the floors clean in the registered formula areas. Pine Sol.
They know have a lot of far better products.

[Hekate]

8. Just checked my cupboard -- I seem to have Lysol

I never really did like the smell of Pine-Sol — to me it always smelled like a public restroom, albeit a clean one.

[wnylib]

11. I'm allergic to pine scents so I have never bought it.

Don't like the odor of Lysol liquid floor cleaner, either. The spray cleaner and the Lysol wipes are ok.

[XanaDUer2]

18. Pine Sol reminds me of school bathrooms nt

[smb]

12. How Good Of A Cleaning Product Can It Be If Bacteria Can Survive In It? nt

[ProfessorGAC]

22. It's Not

It's OK as a cleaner, not great. That company has cleaning formulas far better than Pine Sol, but there's a brand loyalty they refuse to fight.
The terpenes in pine oil are weak(!) antimicrobials as evidenced by your observation.
Their products including some form of benzylkonium chloride, (or saccharide) are literally thousands of times more effective. I also know they are aware of all this.
Why do I know that? Senior formulation chemists in Oakland told me directly. I've been in several of their sites, including corporate R&D. Starting in around 1990.

[flying_wahini]

13. Look up Steramine on Amazon. It is a quartenary cleanser that hospitals use.

It sells as a tablet you can dissolve in water and used on just about anything.

Kills MRSA, HIV, Gram Neg and Positive bacterias among other diseases.
Cheap and very effective.

[ProfessorGAC]

23. Fine Suggestion

That product tests well. However, it's not at all unique.
The quat used in there is a typical mix of methyl dialkyl & dimethyl alkyl ammonium chloride salts.
The name is derived from the fact that the carbon backbone (the alkyl groups) ranges from 12 to 18 carbons.
The distribution is what was typically referred to as stearic acid. (True stearate is all C18)
Those fatty acids can be reacted with ammonia or derivatives which then can be quaternized.
So STER------AMINE.
Clorox wipes have these same molecules, as do many other commercial & institutional sanitizers.

[chia]

25. Thank you for your very useful contributions to this thread. I appreciate them.

[orleans]

28. i couldn't find anything about this on the clorox website

--why not??--

anyway, i did find this on a google search

https://pinesolrecall.com/