BLULOW (All About Living Green)

I want to talk about something that had not dawned on me until I received an e-mail from a concerned reader. Her email expressed a two-fold concern:

1. Was the Arm & Hammer Washing Soda ingredient I call for the in the homemade laundry and dishwashing detergent recipes phosphate free?
2. Is the Arm & Hammer testing process animal cruelty free? In other words, do they engage in animal testing of their products?

After doing some research, I was pleased to be able to inform this reader that yes, in fact Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda is phosphate free, but saddened to inform that they are not a pet friendly company. They do engage in animal testing of their products. Having been made aware of this, I feel this is a fact that I must share with my readers.

The Caring Consumer website maintains a listing of those companies who are pet friendly, and those who are not. This list is updated every three to four months or so.

Now that you are aware of this fact what can you do? Well, the way I see it, you do have options when it comes to making your own homemade laundry and dish detergent. You can either abandon the process of making your own detergent and continue with the store-bought brand (but please check the above websites to see if they are pet friendly and make sure they are phosphate free), or you can try fix what is broken.

To the second option, I am listing the contact information for the owners of Arm & Hammer below. Please call, write or e-mail them and express your concerns. If we all band together we might be able to make a change. After all, that’s why we’re all going blulow. We want to make a change and preserve our environment of which animals are a part.

Church & Dwight
P.O. Box 1625
Horsham, PA 19044-6625
Phone: 609-683-5900 or 800-524-1328
Web Address: http://www.armandhammer.com/
Consumer comment/complaint: www.churchdwight.com/consumer_info/consumer/consumer.asp