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Thread Number: 63667
/ Tag: Detergents and Additives
Phosphate bans in the 1970s |
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Post# 862359 1/17/2016 at 12:58 (3,019 days old) by jamiel  (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA) |
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I wasn't quite old enough to remember, but in looking at old Chicago Tribune newspapers I hadn't realized just how much drama there was about phosphate and non-phosphate detergents in the Great Lakes area. Apparently P&G actually took their detergents off the market in the city of Chicago for a time when there was a phosphate ban put in place for the city (but not the suburbs). My grandmother used the 5-gallon-bucket type detergent for many years in her Maytag in suburban Chicago and the lime encrustation was bad... I did some research (more accurately, opposition research) for one of the big chemical companies back in 1992 when I was between jobs looking at FOIA documents in several areas around big phosphate manufacturers (I remember in Pennsylvania and Tennessee).
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Post# 862434 , Reply# 1 1/17/2016 at 20:39 (3,018 days old) by Supersuds (Knoxville, Tenn.) |
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I don't remember that about P&G taking detergents off the market. I do remember Consumers Reports harping on the generally poor performance of phosphate-free detergents and rating them separately. That's where I first found out about the glory of phosphates. ;)
Tennessee never banned phosphates, but by 1980 most of the budget brands like Ajax and Rinso were phosphate-free anyway, as was All, which had previously been quite good. P&G continued to have phosphate versions of all their brands, IIRC, but Lever and Colgate retained them only for a few top of the line detergents, like Fab and Surf. Some chain stores carried only the phosphate free variants of the P&G brands so it paid to look at the labels and see what you were getting. | ||
| Post# 862733 , Reply# 2 1/19/2016 at 00:29 (3,017 days old) by Stan (Napa CA) | ||
Jamie | ||
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Post# 862769 , Reply# 4 1/19/2016 at 06:14 (3,017 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA) |
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The opposition research was creating FOIA requests in areas around this company and it's competitors phosphate plants and inspecting the records in the county offices in these areas--they wanted information out of them (capacities, outputs, etc) but didn't want their hands on the FOIA request...plus if they had a request themselves they could say "look, we got examined as well." Kind of a fun project during a short period of unemployment.
Fels Naptha (or Instant Fels) was soap with some sodium carbonate (washing soda) builder...so Biz probably helped a lot. The top-line laundry detergents had a lot of phosphate to insure great washing everywhere--way more than needed in areas with soft river water. | ||
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Post# 862866 , Reply# 5 1/19/2016 at 16:01 (3,017 days old) by Supersuds (Knoxville, Tenn.) |
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| Post# 862939 , Reply# 6 1/19/2016 at 19:54 (3,016 days old) by Mich (Hells Kitchen - New York) | ||
P&G
IRRC, Procter & Gamble sued the city of Chicago.. when stores were forced to remove Tide & other P&G detergents from store shelves, in the early 90's. I guess... they we're pretty mad about the considerable loss of sales, from losing a huge market.
I bet you can find the court case online, if you Googled it :) | ||
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Post# 862951 , Reply# 7 1/19/2016 at 20:55 (3,016 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA) |
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Post# 862965 , Reply# 8 1/19/2016 at 22:56 (3,016 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Late as the 1970's Fels Instant most certainly did contain phosphates. See: books.google.com/booksQUESTIONMA...
Am guessing at some point the formula was changed. In fact many so called "soap powders" at one time were *built* with phosphates. | ||
| Post# 863025 , Reply# 9 1/20/2016 at 07:35 (3,016 days old) by arbilab (Ft Worth TX (Ridglea)) | ||
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Post# 863058 , Reply# 10 1/20/2016 at 11:48 (3,016 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Since Lever Brothers and Henkel | ||
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Post# 863385 , Reply# 11 1/21/2016 at 20:04 (3,014 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Amway Trizyme | ||
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