Watch It..Persil Can Burn!

[whirlcool]

I got a note yesterday from our local post that my crate of Persil liquids and powders from the UK had arrived. So I went to the post and picked up the large box and threw it in the back of my SUV. Since I had one of my dogs with me, we did a few other errands about town with the cardboard box of Persil in the rear cargo area of the truck.
After awhile, I started to notice that there was a strong odor in the car similar to the liquid you find in a bottle of pickles.
It was light, nothing to worry about. After about 15 minutes, I noticed that my dogs eyes were running and my face was rather red. We went directly home and I removed the box of Persil and noticed that a very strong odor was emitting from the Persil box.
I opened it up and found that one of the bottles of liquid Persil had not had the cap screwed down totally tight and had soaked one of the sides of the boxes of Persil powder. The box of the Persil powder was emitting the strong smell. I unpacked it and transferred the powder to a tupperware like container.
Later that evening I noticed my face looked really sunburned and my dogs eyes were really watering and he was blinking a lot. My skin started to feel like a really bad sunburn and the skin around my nose started to oooze slightly. It was really painful. Strangely enough, I had no problem breathing. So I called my doctor as I was quite concerned at this time and he said to wash gently and put Neosporin on my skin. The vet said to wash the dogs eyes out really well with distilled water and to put in a Eye Antibiotic I had used on one of my other dogs last year.
This morning all the oozing and pain and redness is gone, dog is back to normal again. I now have to check the inside of the car to see if any of the paint peeled.->!
Has anyone ever heard of this with laundry detegents?

 

[toggleswitch]

*WOW* just from mixing powder and liquid.

YIKES!

 

[whirlcool]

The Persil types were liquid Persil Non-Bio and Powdered Regular Persil. Both UK variants. So I suspect that there may be some incompatible ingredients between the two "flavors" and this doesn't become apparent until the two mix at a rather large rate.
Fortunately, I only lost about 100ml of the liquid and maybe another 100ml of the powder. Still plenty of Persil to use.
We are still amazed at how clean everything comes out even in our WP top loader. We never use more than 50ml for a large load and hot water and everything comes out whiter than white! Howver, we do stop the machine and let it soak for about 10 minutes in the middle of the wash cycle to give the enzymes time to work.

 

[lavamat_jon]

 

[appnut]

Alan, very thankful the incident hasn't caused any worse side-effects, but I am sooo sorry you & your dog had to go through this.

 

[sudsmaster]

The main ingredient in Persil, as in most powders, is sodium carbonate, which is also called soda ash or washing sods. It is a rather harsh alkaline substance. Not as harsh as lye, but not something you'd want to apply to your skin and leave it there.

Persil's chemists may have also been busy inventing new chemicals to enhance the cleaning ability of Persil. These may be proprietary, however, it's a safe bet that they aren't recommended for skin application, either.

Ironically, the very same phosphates that so many blame for harming the environment, are significantly more gentle and less toxic than soda ash. In fact, STPP is a common ingredient in processed foods and shrimp. And in order to try to duplicate the multiple cleaning benefits of phosphates, detergent mfgs are adding more and more exotic ingredients that may be downright toxic.

Ok, off my phosphated soap box.

 

[whirlcool]

What got me was that when this happened all the Persil was still in the shipping carton unopened. So the original shipping container was fuming along as it was being shipped.
That Persil powder sure has a very strong and intense smell. IS it susposed to be this way?

 

[lavamat_jon]

Whirlcool, what size box of UK Persil do you have? When the first "splat" biological (green) formula was released in the UK, in 1.1, 2.2, 3.3, and 5.5kg boxes, it was absolutely disgusting and had quite a strong stench of what I thought resembled mildew, and also didn't clean very well. However Unilever reformulated the green biological powder, which seemed to coincide with the new packaging sizes (1, 3, 7, 9, 13kg) and not only does it clean superbly but it has a much nicer smell, sort of a grassy-piney-type smell but not too heavy - I find it's quite light in the box, and doesn't seem to remain on the laundry at the end (even if I only use 2 low level rinses on the Miele).

Did you order any more UK detergents/softeners? My recommendations for other UK detergents if you fancy trying some are Daz (has a great, fresh, clean, chemical vintage smell), and the Comfort range of fabric softeners (in particular blue, pure, and lily and riceflower, although the wild pear & ginkgo, sun fresh, and passion flower & ylang ylang versions are great too).

Take care! Keep us updated with how you're liking the Persil, and feel free to ask any questions. BTW, I've found Persil powder to be the best rinsing detergent available at present on the market (no suds even in the first rinse, whereas P&G detergents still even sometimes suds in the last rinse), but the liquids are completely opposite - I get much better rinsing results (and less sudsing) from Ariel or Daz (P&G) liquids.

Jon

 

[whirlcool]

This is the 3L size, and I'll tell you the box has really stunk up the entire house! We had to move it to the garage. If this is the new stuff, yuck! It has a highly acid smell, for lack of a better description it smells like really potent, uh... female odor if and when you know what I mean. I am keeping in mind this is a G rated discussion group. This stuff really makes your eyes burn! I can't imagine what it would do to clothes! We are going to ship it back and ask for another flavor, maybe more of the Persil Colour Care.
I am seriously wondering if something is wrong with this package. When I say it stinks the house up, not one room in this house didn't reek of it!
Now on the other hand, the Persil Non-Bio powder is just great and we have ALL the flavors of the Persil liquids and just love them all.
Anyone else have any ideas?

 

[lavamat_jon]

Hmm, perhaps that is a result of what happened when it was mixed with the liquid? The huge box of Persil is on top of my Miele in my bedroom and you can't smell it at all, you only get a faint, light whiff when you open the box to scoop it out. Have been using it for about a month or two now and it's great on whites, and also doesn't fade coloureds or darks, and leaves no smell on the laundry at all even if I use just the standard 2 rinses and no softener. Perhaps it'll be worth trying another batch?

The Colour Care stuff is nice too - I don't use it because I've found the standard stuff to be OK on coloureds & darks, but it does have a very nice floral smell to it, and the smell does linger on the laundry unlike the Bio and Non Bio versions.

If you're going to be ordering another batch from the UK, I would also recommend you try some Daz and definitely some Comfort like I mentioned before . Our Ariel is nice too, but they have messed about a bit with the smell of the reforumlated biological Ariel and, whilst the smell is still nice, it isn't as nice as the Persil smell IMO.

Take care, keep us updated!

Jon

 

[frigilux]

For Christ's sake, man, GET RID OF THAT CRAP!! No detergent should smell up your whole house. There is obviously something wrong with it. Don't risk your health over a box of imported detergent.

 

[whirlcool]

Frigilux:

The box has been triple wrapped in heavy duty plastic and double cardboard boxed and is in the garage. No smells that we can tell of, but it won't be there long.. we are going to ship it back to the UK tomorrow.
I have never heard of something like this happening with detergent. I wonder if it is truly defective? It's almost as if t hey filled the box with only one of the minor ingredients and forgot the rest. But one would think that if it happened with my box it would have had to happen to others as well. Anyone heard of any Persil recalls?

 

[sudsmaster]

Suggestion: take a sample of each to a testing lab to find out what you've been exposed to. If it turns out to be something bad, then take whoever sold it to you to the cleaners.

 

[whirlcool]

I think that would be kind of hard considering I'm in the US and the British Market is in the UK. But I get your drift....

 

[sudsmaster]

Well, Persil is owned by an international company, Henckel. I imagine it would be possible to go after them if indeed this is a defective or dangerous product. And the test could provide you with some peace of mind if you're worried about long term effects. But since the testing might be costly, the pros and cons of such a course of action would have to be weighed carefully.

The shipping company might also bear some responsiblility, as it appears from your posts that the package was damaged in transit.

 

[lavamat_jon]

Rich - the UK Persil is actually made by Unilever - The Henkel Persil is the Persil available throughout mainland Europe, and is also the variant that Miele dealers sell (albeit at rather extortionate prices).

Whirlcool - as I've said before never heard of any Persil recalls as such due to any dangerous circumstance, I really do honestly think you either got a duff batch, or more likely it is a result of the liquid and powder reacting. You still gonna try another box?

Take care,

Jon

 

[sudsmaster]

Jon,

Actually, I think the UK Persil WAS recalled at one point. They had decided to start to use a certain cleaning agent in the detergent that actually would eat holes in fabrics that were dyed with a certain type of blue dye. As I recall it was some metal ion related reaction. UK Persil recalled the product and issued a new one. German Persil fans were quick to point out that their product was unaffected.

 

[lavamat_jon]

Actually, now you mention it - there was that infamous Persil Power incident about 12 years or so ago which used a manganese catalyst to enhance cleaning ability even more. Persil quickly replaced the first formulation of Persil Power with a version that had something like 25% of the manganese content that the original formulation of Persil Power did, but by that time the Persil Power name had taken a great hit and so was relaunched as New Generation Persil (however I believe that it was actually the same formulation of the new version of Persil Power, just renamed so that people would buy it :-D).

Take care,

Jon

 

[MrX]

It sounds like something in the powder has reacted nastily with something in the liquid. It's also possible that it has reacted with the packaging / the shipping packaging (e.g. the glues / tape used to seal the package up)

Unilever Persil, much like any other laundry detergent, usually smells quite mild and pleasant.

I would suggest shipping liquid detergents transatlantic anyway. It's rather messy. The powders ship easily.

Also, I would suggest making contact with the shipper before attempting to return anything noxious by post. The US Postal Service and The UK's Royal Mail will not appreciate it and may just destroy / dispose of the item if it releases anything nasty.

In fact, you may even face legal action if it stinks the place up too much!

Whoever is shipping these detergents should ensure that the lids are sealed tightly and then apply tape around them. The liquid detergent should also be sealed inside a plastic bag ... even a large ziploc bag.. to ensure that it all stays in.

Concentrated laundry detergents do contain pretty reactive chemicals and really need to be handled with care when shipping!