The Metafilter folks aren’t especially impressed with a mother’s complaint that her son’s rubbing “Magic Eraser” on himself caused a rash and that more warnings are needed on the package:
“Also, don’t let your kids drink Round Up. Or put Tide in their eyes.”
“It seems to me that if a product is known for scouring markings off of nearly any surface, some degree of it not being like Oil of Olay moisture rich foaming face wash should be assumed.”
“I just checked my box of SOS steel wool soap pads and they don’t have any warning either! Won’t somebody think of the children?”
“The kid didn’t rub his face with the eraser, Mom did. She cleaned his face with sandpaper that didn’t look like sandpaper to her, and his face got all red, and she freaked out that he was “burned”, because she still doesn’t believe the erasers are sandpaper. Not a chemical burn. A friction burn. Caused by Mom.”
“Things I have learned today on Metafilter: 1. Do not rub your kid’s face with a cleaning pad that can take permanent marker off a hard surface with only a couple of mild scrubs.”
To the mother’s credit, she says she isn’t interested in suing. (h/t Slim.)
2 Comments
I’m surprised. MetaFilter threads are usually more sympathetic.
But they’re right. It’s an abrasive pad, like sandpaper. If you’ve ever had an abrasion to your skin like that and put water to it, you know how much it hurts.
Add to it the fact that the woman started putting lotions and gunk on her kid’s face and I’m sure he was in serious pain.
As one of the MetaFilter comments pointed out, soap ordinarily has a pH of 8-10. Thus, the pad was not extraordinarily alkaline, which is where she seems to be laying the blame.
I read the original post, and her update. I’m grateful she isn’t planning on suing the 3M corporation over this, but I have to disagree with her insistence that they should have had a warning on the packaging. At some point common sense has to take over, and if something is strong enough to remove black scuff marks from your floor with a single swipe, why the hell would you think it was gentle enough for your baby’s face?
What amazes me is the number of commenters who chimed in that they had done exactly the same thing as well. Is common sense in such short supply? Do we need warning labels on kitchen knives now saying “Warning, may cause blood loss and injury if inserted into the chest”?
Apparently, America has such a short supply of common sense that people now assume that any use for an item they can imagine is perfectly safe, so long as there isn’t a warning label specifically cautioning against the activity. I eagerly await the tale of the distressed mother who writes in to say that GE really needs to put a warning label on their dishwashers letting you know that kids can drown if you try to put them through the rinse cycle.