Chemicals and Kids

November 2, 2006

Chemical burn from Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Scotchbrite Easy Eraser

Some of you who are marked as friends or family on my flickr account have already seen this, but as Jill pointed out, I probably need to share it just for the sake of public awareness.

I hate writing this and I hate sharing it as there is a lot of guilt wrapped up in it, but here goes.

One of my five year old's favorite chores around the house is cleaning scuff marks off the walls, doors, and baseboards with either an Easy Eraser pad, or the real deal, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. I purchased a package of Magic Erasers ages ago when they first came out. I remember reading the box, wondering what the "Magic" component was that cleaned crayon off my walls with ease. No ingredients were listed and absolutely no warnings were on the box, other than "Do not ingest."

My package of the Scotchbrite Easy Erasers didn't have a warning either and since my child knew not to eat the sponges and keep them out of reach of his little brother and sister, it was a chore I happily let him do.

If I had known that both brands (and others like them) contain a harmful alkaline or "base" chemical (opposite of acid on the pH scale) that can burn your skin, I never would have let my little boy handle them. As you can see from the picture, when the Scotchbrite Easy Eraser was rubbed against his face and chin, he received severe chemical burns.

At first, I thought he was being dramatic. I picked him up, put him on the counter top and washed his face with soap and water. He was screaming in pain. I put some lotion on his face - more agony. I had used a Magic Eraser to remove magic marker from my own knuckles a while back and I couldn't understand why he was suddenly in pain. Then, almost immediately, the large, shiny, blistering red marks started to spread across his cheeks and chin.

I quickly searched Google.com for "Magic Eraser Burn" and turned up several results. I was shocked. These completely innocent looking white foam sponges can burn you?

I called our pediatrician, and of course got sent to voice mail. I hung up and called the Hospital and spoke to an Emergency Room nurse. She told me to call Poison Control. The woman at Poison Control said she was surprised nobody had sued these companies yet and walked me through the process of neutralizing the alkaline to stop my son's face from continually burning more every second.

I had already, during my frantic phone calling, tried patting some numbing antibiotic cream on his cheeks, and later some Aloe Vera gel - both resulted in screams of pain. The Poison Control tech had me fill a bathtub with warm water, lay my son into it, cover him with a towel to keep him warm and then use a soft washcloth to rinse his face and chin with cool water for a continuous 20 minutes.

My son calmed down immediately. He told me how good it felt. I gave him a dose of Tylenol and after the twenty minutes was up, he got dressed in his Emergency Room doctor Halloween costume and off we went to the Hospital.

They needed to make sure the chemical burn had stopped burning, and examine his face to determine if the burn would need to be debrided (from my fuzzy recollection of hospital work, this means removing loose tissue from a burn location). My son was pretty happy at the hospital, they were very nice and called him "Doctor" and let him examine some of their equipment. The water had successfully stopped the burning and helped soothe a lot of the pain. I'm sure Tylenol was helping too.

They sent us home with more Aloe Vera gel, Polysporin antibiotic cream, and some other numbing burn creams. By the time we got home, my son was crying again. I tried applying some of the creams but he cried out in pain. Water seemed to be what worked the best.

After a rough night, I took the above photo in the morning. He was swollen and wouldn't move his lips very much to avoid moving the skin on his taut cheeks. I was fighting back the tears, and I said, "Oh honey, I wish I could take it away from you. I wish I could take it off your face and put it on mine." He was so shocked, he started to tear up a little and said, "Mom, no. You don't want this on your face, it hurts so much. You would be hurting. Last night was terrible, I couldn't sleep, and you wouldn't be able to sleep either." It just broke my heart into five trillion pieces - as much as he is hurting, he wouldn't want me to be hurting in his place.

Today he is doing much better. The burns have started to scab over, and in place of red, raw, angry, skin we have a deeper red, rough healing layer. I can touch his skin now, without it stinging, and this morning he went back to Pre-School with Polysporin rubbed all over his face. He announced to the class, "I brought my face for Show and Tell!"

I still feel so badly, I'm supposed to protect my son, yet I stupidly thought these "Magic" products were harmless.

I have called both Mr. Clean and Scotchbrite (3M). Mr. Clean tells me their products now have a warning label that state they should not be used on skin and can cause burns. I could not get through to 3M so I left messages and e-mailed the story through the form on their website.

I just received a response:

Dear Ms. Kerflop,

Thank you for taking time to contact 3M Home Care Division. Feedback from our customers is an integral part of our business and we encourage it. Please know that we have forwarded your message to our marketing and lab departments.

We would appreciate the opportunity to discuss the performance of our product with you, as we would not expect it to behave as you have described. Please call us at your earliest convenience, toll free at 1-800-846-8887, so that I might assist you further and bring this matter to a resolution that is agreeable for you.

Sincerely,

Tina
3M Home Care Divisio

I'll keep you updated. Funny, "we would not expect it to behave as you have described".

Note: I have absolutely no intention of suing the company whatsoever. My son is going to be fine. I would simply like the companies to post appropriate warnings on their products.

Comment: Normally, I would not post this because a lot of these things are just "out there." I've never heard of these products and stick to basic ammonia and Krud Kutter for harder jobs at home, but upon hearing the popularity of these products, and knowing how children can be allergic to certain things, I thought it was probably prudent.