Leaves Windows Spotless, Tastes Great
Ask Sen. Mark Madsen why he wants to limit public access to government inspection reports and the discussion inevitably turns to Windex.
Same goes for Paul Mero of the Sutherland Institute, which is backing Madsen's SB77.
Ditto for Melva Sine of the Utah Restaurant Association.
The oft-told story goes like this: A health inspector finds a bottle of Windex in a restaurant kitchen and notes the violation on his report as a "hazardous substance" in the food prep area. The news media doesn't provide the proper context for the violation and customers come away thinking the restaurant stores rat poison near the cutting board.
According to the Material Safety Data Sheet on Windex, the cleaner contains three toxic chemicals: butoxyethanol, ethylene glycol hexyl ether and isophropyl alcohol. It doesn't pose an imminent health risk but can be hazardous if spilled in food or mixed with other chemicals like chlorine, a common disinfectant.
Tribune researcher Ana Daraban searched for any and all news articles from the past five years containing the words "Windex, restaurants, inspection and hazardous." She found a handful of reports of Nevada and Florida restaurants being written up for storing Windex near food, countertops and clean dishes, as well as a few instances of eateries using the ammonia-based substance as a disinfectant.
There weren't any accounts of Windex poisoning people or rodents, but Daraban did turn up this noteworthy item from the Los Angeles Times. In a 1994 story about a California ant invasion, entomologists and health officials said the clear blue glass cleaner is, I kid you not, an effective pesticide.
Said Bryce Larsen, director of the Salt Lake Valley Health Department's Food Safety Bureau: "Are there chemicals more dangerous than Windex? Clearly. But Windex is still something you don't want to be ingesting."
-- Linda Fantin
Same goes for Paul Mero of the Sutherland Institute, which is backing Madsen's SB77.
Ditto for Melva Sine of the Utah Restaurant Association.
The oft-told story goes like this: A health inspector finds a bottle of Windex in a restaurant kitchen and notes the violation on his report as a "hazardous substance" in the food prep area. The news media doesn't provide the proper context for the violation and customers come away thinking the restaurant stores rat poison near the cutting board.
According to the Material Safety Data Sheet on Windex, the cleaner contains three toxic chemicals: butoxyethanol, ethylene glycol hexyl ether and isophropyl alcohol. It doesn't pose an imminent health risk but can be hazardous if spilled in food or mixed with other chemicals like chlorine, a common disinfectant.
Tribune researcher Ana Daraban searched for any and all news articles from the past five years containing the words "Windex, restaurants, inspection and hazardous." She found a handful of reports of Nevada and Florida restaurants being written up for storing Windex near food, countertops and clean dishes, as well as a few instances of eateries using the ammonia-based substance as a disinfectant.
There weren't any accounts of Windex poisoning people or rodents, but Daraban did turn up this noteworthy item from the Los Angeles Times. In a 1994 story about a California ant invasion, entomologists and health officials said the clear blue glass cleaner is, I kid you not, an effective pesticide.
Said Bryce Larsen, director of the Salt Lake Valley Health Department's Food Safety Bureau: "Are there chemicals more dangerous than Windex? Clearly. But Windex is still something you don't want to be ingesting."
-- Linda Fantin
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home