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Sani Flush

Sani-Flush was an American brand of crystal toilet bowl cleaner formerly produced by Reckitt Benckiser. Its main ingredient was sodium bisulfate; it also contained sodium carbonate as well as sodium lauryl sulfate, talc, sodium chloride, fragrance and dye.

When sodium bisulfate is mixed with water, a highly-corrosive acidic solution is produced, which dissolves accumulated minerals such as iron, magnesium and calcium from the bowl.[1]

The product has been discontinued because of environmental concerns; by 2013 its last original US trademark was cancelled or allowed to expire.[2]

History

Sani-Flush was introduced by the Hygienic Products Company of Chicago, Illinois in 1911 as a toilet bowl cleaner; since 1922 it had also been promoted[3] for flushing "rust, scale and sludge" from automobile radiators.[4] Advertisements from the 1920s onward depicted a housewife in an apron using the product to disinfect the bowl and remove odors; it "cleans closet bowls without scouring"[5] with "no drudgery whatsovever".[6]

The brand was sold to American Home Products; that company's subsidiary Boyle-Midway was sold to Reckitt & Colman (now Reckitt Benckiser) in 1990. The primary direct competitor to Sani-Flush was Vanish, a brand of toilet cleaning crystals marketed in the US by Drackett, which was later acquired by the SC Johnson Company.

Widely stocked in grocery and hardware stores, the product was a well-known household name and occasionally mentioned in children's jokes like "If Santa gets stuck in your chimney, use Santa Flush" and the apocryphal advertising slogan "Sani-Flush, Sani-Flush, cleans your teeth without a brush. All you do is pour it on; one, two, three, your teeth are gone."[7] Mixing Sani-Flush (an acid) with a chlorine bleach (hypochlorite) like Drāno or Liquid-Plumr can be deadly as it releases the poisonous gas chlorine.[8] On April 8, 1964 a Winn-Dixie food store in St. Petersburg, Florida was evacuated and eleven people hospitalized when a combination of these two incompatible products was used to clean a floor.[9]

Sani-Flush is mentioned several times in William S. Burroughs' novel Naked Lunch, where the product is used to "cut" (dilute) cocaine or where it is substituted for morphine by a pharmacist.[10]

The original product quietly disappeared from store shelves circa-2009; the US trademark was cancelled in 2013. Unlike rival Vanish, whose mark now serves to market other formats of toilet cleaner from the same manufacturer, the Sani-Flush name in the US was simply abandoned. "Sani-Flush"[11] and "Sani-Flush Puck"[12] retain their registered trademark status in Canada, but refer to a different toilet cleaner.[13]

See also

External links

References

  1. Karen Logan. Clean House, Clean Planet Simon and Schuster, 1997-04-01, retrieved 2014-07-24^
  2. US trademark search on http://tmsearch.uspto.gov shows all marks expired or held by unrelated, non-manufacturing entities.^
  3. The Trade-mark Reporter 1952, retrieved 2014-07-24^
  4. Popular Mechanics advertisement (run during much of the 1930s and 1940s) for Sani-Flush as automotive radiator cleaner Hearst Magazines, September 1938, retrieved 2014-07-24^
  5. Jessamyn Neuhaus. Housework and Housewives in American Advertising: Married to the Mop Springer, 2011-11-08, retrieved 2014-07-24^
  6. Daniel Delis Hill. Advertising to the American Woman, 1900-1999 Ohio State University Press, 2002-01-01, retrieved 2014-07-24^
  7. R. Gerald Alvey. Kentucky Folklore 1989, retrieved 2014-07-24^
  8. In Goins v. Clorox Company, (926 F2d 559), the estate of an end user who poured Drano (by Bristol-Myers), Liquid Plumr (by Clorox) and Sani-Flush (by Boyle-Midway) into the same clogged drain unsuccessfully attempted to sue Clorox Corporation, Drackett, and Boyle-Midway, but failed to prove the warnings on the products were inadequate.^
  9. 11 persons overcome by toxic gas fumes, St. Petersburg Times - Apr 9, 1964^
  10. William S. Burroughs. Dr Benway Operates Naked Lunch, retrieved 2 August 2011^
  11. Canadian Trademarks Details: SANI-FLUSH — 0076212 - Canadian Trademarks Database - Intellectual property and copyright - Canadian Intellectual Property Office - Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada^
  12. Canadian Trademarks Details: SANI-FLUSH PUCK — 0574636 - Canadian Trademarks Database - Intellectual property and copyright - Canadian Intellectual Property Office - Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada^
  13. SANI-FLUSH® Auto - Regular with Lysol® retains the historic trademark in Canada, but differs in chemical composition and application.^