Bounce Dryer Sheets

[beverlybdmd]

I was re-writing some old articles for my web pages & trying to up-date things, so I was looking at web-links, and found some fun things to share on the Bounce sheets:

first is a little message board on how people are using them
http://www.bounceeverywhere.com/fres...your_ideas.jsp

The second is just a screaming funny article that I am going to copy here with the URL:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Beyond-the...unce&id=330955
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
Beyond the Dryer: The Truth About Bounce
By Jon Kline

Visiting my favorite computer support website, I didn't expect to find information about a common household product like Bounce brand dryer sheets. However, as with many successful internet communities, the function sometimes exceeds its original ambitions. There was a post from September 12th that caught my eye, "Bounce this around" filed in "The Doctor's Lounge," (usually reserved for birthday announcements or other off-topic remarks). I was surprised to find the post was written like ad copy for Bounce brand dryer sheets:

The US Postal service sent out a message to all letter carriers to put a sheet of Bounce in their uniform pockets to keep yellow jackets [sic] away.

Use them all the time when playing baseball and soccer. It really works. The yellow jackets just veer around you.

1. All this time you've just been putting Bounce in the dryer! It will chase ants away when you lay a sheet near them. It also repels mice.

2. Spread sheets around foundation areas, or in trailers, or cars that are sitting and it keeps mice from entering your vehicle.

3. It takes the odor out of books and photo albums that don't get opened too often.

4. It repels mosquitoes. Tie a sheet of Bounce through a belt loop when outdoors during mosquito season.

The post went on to claim a total of 21 'alternative' uses for the product. I was astounded. Money couldn't buy advertising like this! My first thought was "What's in these dryer sheets anyway?" Surely if they repelled insects they must be toxic. So I turned to the chief resource abut the dangers of any household consumable, the Material Safety Data Sheet. Hoping to find something carcinogenic (or at least environmentally unfriendly); I was disappointed when the most serious health warning read: "ingestion of used or unused sheet by a young child or household pet may lead to impaction of the gastrointestinal tract. A physician or veterinarian should be contacted." So they could potentially cause constipation but obviously the manufacturers weren't worried about what might happen if you actually digested it.

"Biodegradable fabric softening agents", whatever those are, are the active chemicals on the sheets. According to the MSDS sheet, if you feed enough of it to rats (more than 1% of their body weight) it will kill them. That sounded like damning evidence to me, until I realized that if I ate 1% of my body weight of just about anything I'd probably be pretty sick myself.

By now I was thinking the 21 claims were a bit more dubious. Surely there must be official claims at BounceEverywhere.com, the website for this product. While Procter and Gamble, the owner of the Bounce brand, makes no claim of extraordinary insect fighting ability, some of the posters on the Bounce message boards have. "When in an outdoor area where wasps are a problem, just rub a fresh bounce sheet on your hair, clothing and exposed skin. It seems to repel[sic] the pests and keeps you smelling fresh to boot," claims Margie M. from Salyersville, KY. Well it's obvious that Bounce is not trying to deny that it may repel insects, even if they are not directly promoting it for that cause. As I dug further into the posts I found a trend. They allegedly repel mosquitoes, wasps, yellowjackets, moths, ticks, chiggers, ants, rats, mice, chipmunks, and even birds! Dissolve a sheet in water and use it to remove tough burned-on grease in pans, or even wallpaper from the walls! Yes, that's right, someone posting on BounceEverywhere.com claims to have used bounce to remove wallpaper. Bounce's official stance on the postings is "We do not edit your comments and therefore are not responsible for the content, or its accuracy." Having read enough of these outlandish claims, my research took a cynical turn. Surely there must be an unbiased resource for analyzing these claims. So I checked my favorite authority for confirming and debunking modern myths, snopes.com.

Snopes' article, titled "Bounce Back", addressed sixteen claims made about Bounce in a highly circulated email first documented in 2003. The article gave two of the sixteen claims a clear win for Bounce (both relating to its odor-fighting properties) and four claims a definitely not, while the balance fell into a category where it was not particularly effective, ineffective, or measurable.

At this point I was lost. How could I possibly refute every claim I'd found so far? I turned my research back to the original post that started my dilemma. I saw my comments had prompted a few more responses. "It's also an elephant repellant. See any elephants?" posted SpywareDr. My research had only managed to ask more questions than it answered, when another poster claimed:

*Cram one down the filler neck in your car's fuel tank and increase gas mileage by 430%.

*Tape ten sheets across both of your car's bumpers to prevent accidents--it repels other vehicles.

*Put a sheet in your dishwasher and your plates will be wrinkle-free.

*A sheet or two in the bottom of your computer case will prevent BSODs [windows errors] and corrupted files.

I haven't seen a difference in gas mileage yet, but I haven't had an accident since 1985, none of my dishes have wrinkles and my computer works perfectly.

The internet is the most ubiquitous tool of the information age, yet it seems to flourish on misinformation and disinformation. Realizing that after all this internet research I had yet to hold one of these mystical sheets in my hand, I went to the grocery store to purchase a box for my own experiments. Staring down the aisles I worked my way to the place on the shelf where the original scent Bounce dryer sheets should have been. "Outdoor Fresh Scent," "Fresh Linen," and "Spring Awakening," the boxes proclaimed. I resigned myself to smelling like a "Summer Orchard" and put one inside my jacket pocket. Two days later, I visited a friend with a small pet lovebird. As the bird hopped across the couch and into my lap I remembered the dryer sheet was still in my jacket, mere inches away from this adorable bird.

While my research revealed that Bounce may not be bird-repellent, I haven't seen any mosquitoes, wasps, yellow jackets, moths, ticks, chiggers, ants, rats, mice, or chipmunks. Or elephants, for that matter. But the box containing the rest of my Bounce dryer sheets will be staying right where it belongs: in my laundry room, on the shelf above my dryer.

Jonathan Kline is a amateur filmmaker and professional student at the University of Wisconsin Colleges. He is also the webmaster for the independent film Six Bullets.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, I don't know if we can "keep" this article (probably NOT--but at least you-all should go read it at the URL source.)

I know that my parasites are real buggers, but at least they aren't wrinkling my dishes!

[beverlybdmd]

I was re-writing some old articles for my web pages & trying to up-date things, so I was looking at web-links, and found some fun things to share on the Bounce sheets:

first is a little message board on how people are using them
http://www.bounceeverywhere.com/fres...your_ideas.jsp

The second is just a screaming funny article that I am going to copy here with the URL:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Beyond-the...unce&id=330955
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
Beyond the Dryer: The Truth About Bounce
By Jon Kline

Visiting my favorite computer support website, I didn't expect to find information about a common household product like Bounce brand dryer sheets. However, as with many successful internet communities, the function sometimes exceeds its original ambitions. There was a post from September 12th that caught my eye, "Bounce this around" filed in "The Doctor's Lounge," (usually reserved for birthday announcements or other off-topic remarks). I was surprised to find the post was written like ad copy for Bounce brand dryer sheets:

The US Postal service sent out a message to all letter carriers to put a sheet of Bounce in their uniform pockets to keep yellow jackets [sic] away.

Use them all the time when playing baseball and soccer. It really works. The yellow jackets just veer around you.

1. All this time you've just been putting Bounce in the dryer! It will chase ants away when you lay a sheet near them. It also repels mice.

2. Spread sheets around foundation areas, or in trailers, or cars that are sitting and it keeps mice from entering your vehicle.

3. It takes the odor out of books and photo albums that don't get opened too often.

4. It repels mosquitoes. Tie a sheet of Bounce through a belt loop when outdoors during mosquito season.

The post went on to claim a total of 21 'alternative' uses for the product. I was astounded. Money couldn't buy advertising like this! My first thought was "What's in these dryer sheets anyway?" Surely if they repelled insects they must be toxic. So I turned to the chief resource abut the dangers of any household consumable, the Material Safety Data Sheet. Hoping to find something carcinogenic (or at least environmentally unfriendly); I was disappointed when the most serious health warning read: "ingestion of used or unused sheet by a young child or household pet may lead to impaction of the gastrointestinal tract. A physician or veterinarian should be contacted." So they could potentially cause constipation but obviously the manufacturers weren't worried about what might happen if you actually digested it.

"Biodegradable fabric softening agents", whatever those are, are the active chemicals on the sheets. According to the MSDS sheet, if you feed enough of it to rats (more than 1% of their body weight) it will kill them. That sounded like damning evidence to me, until I realized that if I ate 1% of my body weight of just about anything I'd probably be pretty sick myself.

By now I was thinking the 21 claims were a bit more dubious. Surely there must be official claims at BounceEverywhere.com, the website for this product. While Procter and Gamble, the owner of the Bounce brand, makes no claim of extraordinary insect fighting ability, some of the posters on the Bounce message boards have. "When in an outdoor area where wasps are a problem, just rub a fresh bounce sheet on your hair, clothing and exposed skin. It seems to repel[sic] the pests and keeps you smelling fresh to boot," claims Margie M. from Salyersville, KY. Well it's obvious that Bounce is not trying to deny that it may repel insects, even if they are not directly promoting it for that cause. As I dug further into the posts I found a trend. They allegedly repel mosquitoes, wasps, yellowjackets, moths, ticks, chiggers, ants, rats, mice, chipmunks, and even birds! Dissolve a sheet in water and use it to remove tough burned-on grease in pans, or even wallpaper from the walls! Yes, that's right, someone posting on BounceEverywhere.com claims to have used bounce to remove wallpaper. Bounce's official stance on the postings is "We do not edit your comments and therefore are not responsible for the content, or its accuracy." Having read enough of these outlandish claims, my research took a cynical turn. Surely there must be an unbiased resource for analyzing these claims. So I checked my favorite authority for confirming and debunking modern myths, snopes.com.

Snopes' article, titled "Bounce Back", addressed sixteen claims made about Bounce in a highly circulated email first documented in 2003. The article gave two of the sixteen claims a clear win for Bounce (both relating to its odor-fighting properties) and four claims a definitely not, while the balance fell into a category where it was not particularly effective, ineffective, or measurable.

At this point I was lost. How could I possibly refute every claim I'd found so far? I turned my research back to the original post that started my dilemma. I saw my comments had prompted a few more responses. "It's also an elephant repellant. See any elephants?" posted SpywareDr. My research had only managed to ask more questions than it answered, when another poster claimed:

*Cram one down the filler neck in your car's fuel tank and increase gas mileage by 430%.

*Tape ten sheets across both of your car's bumpers to prevent accidents--it repels other vehicles.

*Put a sheet in your dishwasher and your plates will be wrinkle-free.

*A sheet or two in the bottom of your computer case will prevent BSODs [windows errors] and corrupted files.

I haven't seen a difference in gas mileage yet, but I haven't had an accident since 1985, none of my dishes have wrinkles and my computer works perfectly.

The internet is the most ubiquitous tool of the information age, yet it seems to flourish on misinformation and disinformation. Realizing that after all this internet research I had yet to hold one of these mystical sheets in my hand, I went to the grocery store to purchase a box for my own experiments. Staring down the aisles I worked my way to the place on the shelf where the original scent Bounce dryer sheets should have been. "Outdoor Fresh Scent," "Fresh Linen," and "Spring Awakening," the boxes proclaimed. I resigned myself to smelling like a "Summer Orchard" and put one inside my jacket pocket. Two days later, I visited a friend with a small pet lovebird. As the bird hopped across the couch and into my lap I remembered the dryer sheet was still in my jacket, mere inches away from this adorable bird.

While my research revealed that Bounce may not be bird-repellent, I haven't seen any mosquitoes, wasps, yellow jackets, moths, ticks, chiggers, ants, rats, mice, or chipmunks. Or elephants, for that matter. But the box containing the rest of my Bounce dryer sheets will be staying right where it belongs: in my laundry room, on the shelf above my dryer.

Jonathan Kline is a amateur filmmaker and professional student at the University of Wisconsin Colleges. He is also the webmaster for the independent film Six Bullets.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, I don't know if we can "keep" this article (probably NOT--but at least you-all should go read it at the URL source.)

I know that my parasites are real buggers, but at least they aren't wrinkling my dishes!

[ladycolorado]

you know, i have been thinking about dryer sheets. some are afraid fibers can be made worse from them, but the sheets are synthetic. thanks about the bug repellent thing. despite treatment, insects like to chase after me must be very tasty lol. i am going to try that. i did an interesting experiment. i wore gloves and went into kitties room to pet the cats with the dryer sheets shouldn't hurt them, they actually seemed to enjoy it, and the best part is i did not shock them. lots of hair or possibly fibers stuck to it could be a good grooming tool as well.

[ladycolorado]

you know, i have been thinking about dryer sheets. some are afraid fibers can be made worse from them, but the sheets are synthetic. thanks about the bug repellent thing. despite treatment, insects like to chase after me must be very tasty lol. i am going to try that. i did an interesting experiment. i wore gloves and went into kitties room to pet the cats with the dryer sheets shouldn't hurt them, they actually seemed to enjoy it, and the best part is i did not shock them. lots of hair or possibly fibers stuck to it could be a good grooming tool as well.

[redibooks]

Lady C

I would be careful petting the cats with dryer sheets. The sheets leave a residue and cats lick themselves. Some cats can be very sensitive. I doubt its good for them.

Just a word of caution

karen

[redibooks]

Lady C

I would be careful petting the cats with dryer sheets. The sheets leave a residue and cats lick themselves. Some cats can be very sensitive. I doubt its good for them.

Just a word of caution

karen

[Tootsie]

i used to use bounce sheets for the dryer, they worked great for keeping the lint down. But then someone posted on another message board just how toxic they are and she said she used vinegar in the rinse water with fantastic results.

I really hate that vinegar smell and didn't want my clothes to smell sour so I switched to Downy free and sensitive fabric softener, its free of dye and perfumes and I think it works just as well.

I tried the bounce sheets for repelling mice, I had a problem in my storage room outside and it didn't seem to help at all.

[Tootsie]

i used to use bounce sheets for the dryer, they worked great for keeping the lint down. But then someone posted on another message board just how toxic they are and she said she used vinegar in the rinse water with fantastic results.

I really hate that vinegar smell and didn't want my clothes to smell sour so I switched to Downy free and sensitive fabric softener, its free of dye and perfumes and I think it works just as well.

I tried the bounce sheets for repelling mice, I had a problem in my storage room outside and it didn't seem to help at all.

[deluded]

Dr. Bev...I just came across your post, and I wanted to add that 2 of my neighbors swear by dryer sheets for their children...they attach them to their clothes in the summer, or put them in their pockets to keep mosquitoes away...and they say it works...They didn't know that the other neighbor did the same thing, so there must be many people out there spreading this information...and one of them said that her children attract mosquitoes and their bites like you wouldn't believe, except when using fabric softener sheets...they didn't specificly name Bounce, but just fabric softener sheets in general...so not sure if there is one better than other...I use Snuggle personally, and I am funny about certain smells, and it just happens to be the one that I like...the green box or the green bottle of liquid softener, and I decided to use some when I walked in my neighborhood at night last summer....didn't get any bites, but don't know if I would have if I didn't have it attached to my clothes...just thought I would add to the comments...and by the way, I didn't see any elephants either.....Kentucky haze

[deluded]

Dr. Bev...I just came across your post, and I wanted to add that 2 of my neighbors swear by dryer sheets for their children...they attach them to their clothes in the summer, or put them in their pockets to keep mosquitoes away...and they say it works...They didn't know that the other neighbor did the same thing, so there must be many people out there spreading this information...and one of them said that her children attract mosquitoes and their bites like you wouldn't believe, except when using fabric softener sheets...they didn't specificly name Bounce, but just fabric softener sheets in general...so not sure if there is one better than other...I use Snuggle personally, and I am funny about certain smells, and it just happens to be the one that I like...the green box or the green bottle of liquid softener, and I decided to use some when I walked in my neighborhood at night last summer....didn't get any bites, but don't know if I would have if I didn't have it attached to my clothes...just thought I would add to the comments...and by the way, I didn't see any elephants either.....Kentucky haze