soap

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Auto Workers: Forget the Risks, We're Doing This

Hundreds of workers from Ford, GM, and other companies are making medical gear

(Newser) - Cindy Parkhurst could have stayed home collecting most of her pay while the Ford plant where she normally works remains closed due to coronavirus fears. Instead, she along with hundreds of workers at Ford, General Motors, Toyota, and other companies has gone back to work to make face shields, surgical...

Companies Nationwide Are Suffering. Not This One

Procter & Gamble saw biggest quarterly sales in decades thanks to rush on home products

(Newser) - While many businesses are suffering during the coronavirus pandemic, one firm is seeing a surge—mainly because a good number of its products are household necessities in demand during lockdowns. The Wall Street Journal reports that Procter & Gamble saw its biggest quarterly increase in decades, with sales rising 10%...

Need a 'Wonderful' Distraction During the Pandemic? Here It Is

Competitors invited to invent gadget that gets soap to your germy hands in 10 to 20 steps

(Newser) - We've been told to scrub our hands for a full 20 seconds to protect ourselves from the coronavirus. But can you think of a way to make the hand-scrubbing process even longer? That's the gist of the Rube Goldberg "Bar of Soap" challenge , promoted by none other...

Memo to People Hunting Sanitizer: Soap Is Better
Memo to People Hunting
Sanitizer: Soap Is Better
the rundown

Memo to People Hunting Sanitizer: Soap Is Better

It functions like a 'demolition team' against the coronavirus, explains scientist

(Newser) - The coronavirus has people freaking out about toilet paper , which may seem a little odd. It's a little easier to understand the run on hand sanitizers, which are now hard to find on store shelves. But the CDC and others are emphasizing a key point: Hand-washing with ordinary soap...

Workers Started Getting Sick. Someone Suspected the Coffee

Mayda Rivera Juarez sentenced to 3.5 years for putting Windex, dish soap in work java

(Newser) - A Virginia woman has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for poisoning her co-workers' coffee with Windex and dish soap, the AP reports. Loudoun County Commonwealth's Attorney Jim Plowman announced the sentence Thursday for 33-year-old Mayda Rivera Juarez of Sterling. She pleaded guilty in February to...

FDA: So Long, Antibacterial Soaps
FDA: So Long,
Antibacterial
Soaps

FDA: So Long, Antibacterial Soaps

Agency says antibacterial ingredients haven't been proven to be effective, safe

(Newser) - Companies that sell over-the-counter antibacterial soaps will have a year to clean up their acts—namely, to remove those products from shelves and stop marketing them, or take certain ingredients out of their products that the FDA now says are essentially ineffective, NBC News reports. Products containing 19 active ingredients—...

We Should Only Be Showering Once a Week

 We Should Only 
 Be Showering 
 Once a Week 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

We Should Only Be Showering Once a Week

'Terrible for the environment and our bank balances'

(Newser) - Donnachadh McCarthy writing for the Guardian says something in modern society stinks, and it's our habit of showering every day. He says he only bathed once a week when he was a kid and doesn't remember smelling, blaming "falsely imposed cultural norms" for our all-too-frequent showers. McCarthy...

Pair Spends Month in Jail for Having Bag of ... Soap

Lawyer calls it a case of racial profiling

(Newser) - Soap and cocaine are easy to confuse ... right? Apparently so: A young man and woman just spent a month in a Pennsylvania jail for carrying two kilos of soap that police mistook for cocaine, reports Reason via The Morning Call . A trooper pulled over Annadel Cruz, 26, and Alexander Bernstein,...

FDA: Germ-Killing Soap May Be Bad for You

And there's no proof it's better than ordinary soap

(Newser) - The antibacterial soap you've been using religiously? The FDA says there's no proof that it actually stops the spread of germs any better than ordinary soap and water do—and that the chemicals in it may even be bad for us. Some scientists have long warned that triclosan,...

Man Who Made Washing Our Hands Easier Dead at 77
Man Who Made Washing Our Hands Easier Dead at 77
OBITUARY

Man Who Made Washing Our Hands Easier Dead at 77

Give your soap pump a push for Robert Taylor, who died Aug. 29

(Newser) - The man who took a huge gamble to bring you hand soap via pump has died at 77. Robert Taylor wanted to clean up the mess bar soap left in the soap dish, and so his company, Minnetonka, introduced Softsoap in a pump-topped plastic bottle in 1978. But in order...

Study Uncovers Gross Hand-Washing Stat

 Study Uncovers Gross 
 Hand-Washing Stat 
in case you missed it

Study Uncovers Gross Hand-Washing Stat

19 out of 20 of us are doing it wrong

(Newser) - Warning: After reading this, you may never want to shake hands again. Following a trip to the toilet, some 95% of people don't wash their hands properly—meaning long enough actually eliminate bacteria, a study finds. Some commit worse hygiene sins: a third don't use soap, and a...

Germ Killer We've Used for 40 Years Gets FDA Review

Researchers to complete review of triclosan ordered back in the '70s

(Newser) - It's been on the market for more than 40 years, and it's found in everything from antibacterial soap to toothpaste to toys. But there's a chance that the FDA is about to declare the chemical triclosan unsafe, in a review due to be completed this year. The...

Antibacterial Soap Ingredient Spells Trouble for Muscles
Antibacterial Soap Ingredient
Spells Trouble for Muscles
in case you missed it

Antibacterial Soap Ingredient Spells Trouble for Muscles

Triclosan inhibited muscle function of human heart cells in test tubes

(Newser) - If you're an antibacterial-soap junkie, it might be time to cut back. A three-part study suggests triclosan, a common chemical found in such products, slows muscle function in both human and animals. A paper published yesterday outlines the experiments: Scientists exposed human heart and skeletal muscle cells to levels...

Johnson & Johnson Booting Harsh Chemicals by 2015

And for baby products, even sooner

(Newser) - By 2015, almost every single Johnson & Johnson product will no longer contain dangerous chemicals, the company pledged yesterday. It had already promised to remove "chemicals of concern" from baby products by the end of next year, and is still on track to do so. Now it also plans...

FDA Probes 'Hormone Disrupter' in Soap, Toothpaste

Studies in animals point to risk

(Newser) - The Food and Drug Administration is taking a closer look at an antibacterial found in soap and toothpaste. Animal studies of the substance, triclosan, suggest it may alter hormone regulation or help develop resistance to antibiotics, Reuters notes. "There are many troubling questions about triclosan's effectiveness and potentially harmful...

Italian Church Pairs Perfume With Prayer

Opened in Dante's time, pharmacy today sells scents in LA, Tokyo

(Newser) - Florence's Santa Maria Novella church has an intriguing sideline: It's home to one of the world's oldest pharmacies, which today churns out tonics and perfumes made according to medieval recipes. Smithsonian profiles the church, where Dominican monks began concocting herbal remedies and rose water, used to clean plague-touched homes, more...

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