Thanks Laura! I had actually never heard that they were bad (which is why I posted the suggestion). I appreciate your dedication to the pursuit of truth! Thanks for the research. ANYWAY...my plants don't mind a bit (and they look fabulous).

My absolute favorite use for the ME is to clean the textured handles on my refrigerator. Some paint can handle the ME, some can't (like the paint on the walls of my current home) I use the ME to clean my shower. I figure if I do a wall at a time (while I'm in there anyway), it won't take long, and I can keep up with it. Once in a while (ok, maybe after I've been slacking on my maintenance cleaning) I use another cleaner, but I don't really see much difference between the two. I have wondered if it's a good idea to use them on the glass doors. I do it anyway. There is that last little layer of water spots I just can't get off the doors, so I figure the ME can't be scratching it, or if it is, I won't know it until I decide I want to try some nasty chemical stuff to get the water spots off. I don't use it so much on shiny metal things though. (I read the box ages ago but don't have one right now)

Yeah, I should have posted the Snopes article link also in my first post. The site has posted the generated response that P&G sends out to the consumers who inquire about the saftey of the product. It does not address the issue of outgassing. They sort of walk around the whole issue. That makes me very suspicious. They keep emphasizing that the product does not *contain* formaldehyde but do not say anything to assure the consumer that the products does not *degrade* into it's componants or into something entirely different. I'm sure everyone can remember from chemistry class how the addition of something simple like *water* to a simple compound can create something, or maybe two or three things, that are entirely different. Formaldehyde itself is produced by a catalytic oxidation. Even the addition of *heat* to a compound can change it - even heat from friction. So can sunlight...... If I leave my Magic Sponge on the window sill above the sink, is the sunlight going to cause it to release gases. There is not a lot of info out there on formaldehyde-melamine-sodium bisulfite copolymer so I absolutly do not know anything _for sure_ about it. BUT, I do not trust the Big Corporations "announcments" about the saftey of their products. We have all been fooled in the past. Being an 'oldster' I remember how back in the 50's - 60's we were being told that cigarette smoking was COMPLETELY HARMLESS. Cigarette companies even got medical doctors to appear in their commercials to endose their product and dispell the "myth" about the damgers of cigarette smoking. One company even developed 'harmless' *asbestos* cigarette filters. I just am not going to take P&G's "word for it" about a product that is making them tens of MILLIONS of dollars per year. I want to see Snopes publish something from another source other than that of the maufacturer of the product.

I personally think that the Magic Erasers are one of the best ideas in the last decade, as far as cleaning goes...(I was so impressed with the scrubbing bubbles for cleaning mini blinds...) I have used the erasers on whiteboards that got marked on with permanent markers, refrigerator handles that get disgusting with 3 men and a couple grandsons in and out, Step 2 toy box bookshelf that had been in the shed for a couple months, grunge on cabinet doors, pots and pans, light switches, front door, back door.....I use it at least 3x a week on something! Most of all to my surprise, we bought a used car that needed a LOT of TLC a couple years ago....looked like someone had skimmed the fenders and bumpers on wet paint, (white paint on a red car). To my amazement, it came off without a hitch! I also used it on the leather seats, dash and steering wheel. A couple years before that, the white car had brushed the tractor fender and I used it to remove the red paint from a white car! GO MAGIC ERASERS!!