Sometimes you run into something that is so common, yet goes completely unnoticed (it did me at least). Mr. Clean Magic Eraser cleaning sponge is my new tool of choice for cleaning my boat! Seriously, it is really that good!
Have you ever tried to clean your boat only to find that you have to scrub forever to get anything off? Take dried bug juice or scuff marks for example; you’ll be scrubbing all day to get this grime off!
Purely by accident, I tried the Mr. Clean Magic eraser and with almost no work, the dirt and grime came right off. I have no idea what is in this cleaning sponge (it’s safe) or how it does the job so efficiently, but I’m now a big fan!
So, if you own a boat and are looking for the perfect cleaning sponge, then get Mr. Clean Magic Eraser – at my local store, it is about a dollar per sponge.
Mr. Clean makes a line of “household” cleaning products. The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is a cleaning product. I believe that the manufacturer should list all chemicals and any warnings on all of their products. I don’t know if they do or not since I have not personally inspected any of their labels. However, I do not have to do that because common sense tells me that it is a cleaning product and that means it contains chemicals. I would not have a cleaning product exposed to children or pets, nor would I use it as a bar of soap like they guy did while working on the roof. His skin problems are his own fault and the parents are at fault because they let all these kids have exposure to chemicals. Just like the woman who sued McDonald’s after she dumped hot coffee in her lap…..Seriously? You really need a label to spell out the obvious. Seriously?
i love these things but i didnt know the harm when i accidentally swiped my daughters belly with it now its burnt and it looks like its about to blister i didnt know i wish i never touched her with it
It is very sad that these things happend to all involved.. But this is a CLEANING PRODUCT and should be kept away from children at all times just like bleach, laundry detergent, sos pads. as well as medications. Adults should no that all cleaning products should not come in contact with skin and should allways be locked away from children.
Why would anyone use the Magic Eraser Sponge on their skin, I read the directions and the package does n’t recommend it for any kind of human use on skin even by mistake. I use the sponge to clean my home I save a lot of money by not having to buy all the sprays and soaps that I used to buy for a dollar I keep my home basically smudge free every week. Before I had a spray for the shower and tub, one for the toilet, fantastic for the kitchen, bleach for the baseboards and trim in the house and I could never get my pebbles textured refridgerator clean with anything I tried. And to get bugs off the windshield I would use the green florist foam because it turns into a fine green sand and would remove the bugs without scratching. But I have never had the instance where I used it for my body or anyone elses. Shame on the folk who blame the sponge with their human error nothing is that urgent that you can’t walk to the sink and grab a soft cloth for human emergencies. I love the magic eraser it saves me tons of money and I have researched the ingredients no chemical danger or cancer causing agent A paper plate will kill you before the sponge you would be astounded at the chemicals they use to prep paper and a lot of it is recycled — yuck.
I was shocked to read about and see pictures after these Mr Clean Magic Eraser cleaning sponges were used.
They should definitely be taken off the shelves. Many people don’t hear about these terrible things happening and they just keep using them.
I am a grandmother who is very concerned.
Mary-Budd.
Today I was coating a roof and the only thing i could find to clean my hands with was a Magic eraser. Since I had never used one before & bought a three pack & separated them – I did not have packaging to read. Because I have heard others say how great they work I used it gingerly on my hands & took a swipe on my forearm – which immediately looked & felt like I had taken a torch to it.
They are wrongly marketed and should be removed from the shelves – and let me tell you I am 58 years old & an extremely careful person! If this burn gets worse I will be headed to the ER!
PS- cheryl12 – Why are kids rubbing these on their faces – because they are a SPONGE!!! kids love sponges…..
Why aren’t these kids being supervised and why are they rubbing the sponges on their faces, etc???
? I have read in many places these sponges use an alkaline solution? surely if it were an abrasive burn it would be instant not take time to come up add to this the mother who washes her child after using them and never had a problem and the abrasive argument doesn’t stand up.
Thank you Murray, for clearing up the misconception of the Magic Eraser sponges. I do not work for any company that sells this product (I’m an Exec. Asst.), but think people need to do a bit of research before claiming a product has “harsh chemicals” and shouldn’t be used in a household with children. As Murray stated, the erasers are made of a VERY fine abrasive – melamine foam. When melamine resin cures into foam, its microstructure becomes very hard — almost as hard as glass — causing it to perform on stains a lot like super-fine sandpaper.
Use as much care with “magic erasers” as you would with any other cleaner such as bleach or Mr. Clean. They’re sold in the cleaning aisle for a reason.
I agree that any cleaning product needs to be properly stored and kept away from children. But to clarify the issue these magic eraser sponges do not contain reactive chemicals than can burn. They work as a very fine abrasive, so using them on skin causes an abrasive burn, not a chemical burn. Some people report a getting a reaction to them while using them, but I never had. To be safe you can use gloves when cleaning with them, and wash the cleaned surface afterwards.
Yes, I agree with KLHoward, kids should never be around or alone with any cleaning products, and they for sure SHOULDN’T BE CLEANED WITH ANY HOUSEHOLD CLEANING PRODUCTS! Most of these stories involve 2 year old kids, what kind of idiots do this stuff, it’s Mr. Clean not Johnson & Johnson smarten up.
My son came home from school with black sharpie all over his arm. Not thinking I grabbed the Magic Eraser and cleaned it off. He has severe red marks on his arms. I feel like the worse mother in the world.
The school called because of the marks. Now I really feel terrible. What was weird was when I was telling her the story, she knew what I was going to say. At least she knows I was telling the truth and feel horrible, but it doesn’t erase the guilt of knowing I did this to my child, even though it was accidental.
Please don’t ever let your kids use the Magic Eraser! Put them up where they can’t get them!
My son had some Halloween Blood on his face and his father tried to wash it off with a Magic Eraser and it burned his face badly. I tried putting lotion on it after washing it over and over to make sure all the chemicals were off and he screamed. Magic Erasers are not cool for people who have kids in the house. I don’t know if I should take him to the hospital or not? Any suggestions.
I have used magic eraser many, many times and my children have used it with me as well. As with any cleaning product, I had them wash their hands with soap and water when we were finished(no different than if they were cleaning with a rag and bucket of soapy/product-filled water0. I’ve even used the magic eraser to remove permanant marker off the back of my daughter’s hand when nothing else would take it off. The thing is, I had her wash any chemical residue off with plain soap and water. Never had so much as a red mark on mine or their skin. Like any other product that contains chemicals ( even a bucket of pine sol and water), I just have them wash their hands afterwards.
I had the same thing happen today! It scared me half to death when i saw that blister appear on my 3 year olds cheek. She had drawn on herself with a marker and tried to “erase” it with one of the magic erasers laying on the counter…..i had no idea those things were so harmful.
The products work well . My wife uses them all the time.
How many people believe in MAGIC?
Do the pads feel rough?
Do we have to put chemicals on the pad?
I wonder what cleans off the dirt?
Must be MAGIC
So lets give it to our children so they can chew on it or get it all over their sensitive hands and faces.
Nobody told me the pointy end of the knife was sharp and it sure don’t have any warnings on it. It should be good to give to our kids to play LUKE SKY-WALKER
I used the magic eraser on a furniture cushion to get ballpoint pen and pencil from church cushions and it caused white spots where the ink and pencil marks once were, is there a solution?
My almost 2 year old daughter was burned quite badly on the lips and cheeks by the Magic Eraser. My 17 year old son was babysitting for us one evening, and he had tried to wipe some crayola marker off his little sisters face. It was kinda stupid, but he had no idea what would happen later. By the time we had come home a few hours later we could see her lips were swollen and cheek red and sore. I asked what did she touch or eat, thinking it was an allergic reaction to something. He said “nothing Mom, she just slept most of the time and drew some pictures with her felts. She drew on her face so I wiped it off”. “With what?” I asked. “Just that magic eraser by the sink.” After quickly scolding him for that, we tended to her lips. She wouldn’t let us put anything on them or touch them.
Her lips continued to swell and blister that evening. She looked like she had put her lips around the barrel of a hot curling iron. We gave her Tylenol for the pain and she slept quietly. We didn’t feel it warranted a lengthy wait in an emergency waiting room. We’d take her to our doctor in the morning if need be. The next morning her lips were still swollen and blistered. She still wouldn’t let us touch them. As long as we didn’t go near her lips she was happy. 3 days later her lips got all peely and about 5 days later her lips looked normal again.
I was at first unsure that the Magic Eraser could have done that, I’ve thought it was the greatest invention for moms. But after doing some research and finding some similar photos I’m certain that’s what burned my daughter.
I haven’t thrown it out yet, after all there are lots of cleaners etc. that could harm a child and should be kept out of reach. It’s just that we thought Magic Eraser was harmless and so had kept it up by the sink. We now lock it away with the other toxic stuff.
The hazardous material guys who checked this product out and gave it a “0″ rating either weren’t thorough enough, or were given a batch of harmless Magic Eraser to test, that’s my personal opinion anyway.
I spent 56 hours in the peds unit at our hospital with my 2 year old. He had used a sharpie on a 20 by 2 foot section of wall. I used Clorox Clean Up and the Magic Eraser to remove the “art work” from the wall. When I finished I went to put the cleaning products away and returned to the room and realized there were terrible fumes in the room. More than the typical bleach smell from the Clorox spray! I am thinking that there is some sort of chemical in the Magic Eraser that when mixed with the bleach cleaner causes a chemical reaction. My son’s bedroom is next door to the room I cleaned and the smell went into his room also. My son woke up at 1 am not being able to breath. We spent 3 days in the hospital. A word of caution, if you still have magic erasers in your home do not use cleaning products with them. I for one will never have a magic eraser in my home again!!!
I have heard your horror stories about the chemical burns from the Magic Erasers. I have found an amazing alternative. It is a Micro Pad that does the exact same things as the Eraser with the same strength only without a single chemical!!
My son was “burned” by the Magic Eraser too. His arm was severly “burned” after rubbing it on his skin. I know there is a warning on the package now but parents need to know that this product should not be handled AT ALL by children.
I found this on the internet and I’m posting it blow so that other can be aware of what is curculating – I believe this is no longer an issue, but something that you may like to know that was brought up.
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Ok, I’m forwarding this to everyone so they don’t make the same mistake. These burns were caused by a Magic Eraser sponge. The mom in this case let her kids erase their crayon marks off the walls and never even thought the sponges would have this kind of chemical in them that would cause this kind of burn or even hurt them. Learn from her mistake. Pass this along to anyone who has kids or grandchildren.
The photo is of Kolby – 24 hours after being burned by a Magic Eraser sponge. It was much worse the day before.
Here is the email we received -
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, a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. 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 ma gic 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 debri ded (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 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. The skin on his cheeks was taut.
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.
If you are a parent or grandparent, this post is meant to save your loved ones from the horror these parents went through. Please share it with other parents, grandparents, babysitters, aunts and uncles ~ anyone you know who spends time with kids.
Update:
After much back-and-forth, the issue was apparently resolved in January 2007 when the product’s manufacturer (3M) issued an apology and a statement that they had “addressed the issue and are taking steps to change the packaging to warn other consumers of the potential reaction to using the product on the skin.”