Q. Do you know what I can do to remove a black ink pen stain from the breast pocket of a black and pink-checked patterned summer (loose fibred) 100% cotton short-sleeved shirt?

A. I would normally recommend Clorox® Regular-Bleach, but the black and pink doesn't sound like it could handle that approach.

It may be as simple as pre-treating with our Clorox2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster. It contains hydrogen peroxide, and usually can be safely used on most colors. (Try placing a spot on a seam, let it set 2 minutes, then blot dry; no color change means it should be safe to pretreat the stain.) To treat the stain, apply the Clorox2® Stain Fighter & Color Booster to the stain; let it set ~5 minutes, then wash in the warmest water recommended on the garment’s care label with detergent and Clorox2. Check for success before drying and retreat the item if the stain persists.

If this is not strong enough, then a little detective work may be needed to find the right solvent to dissolve the ink and transfer it to another fabric. I recommend that you always use gloves to protect your hands and have adequate ventilation whenever solvents are in use. Among my usual candidates are ethanol, paint thinner, Goo Be Gone or TarGo. Use a QTip dipped in the solvent to see which works best; also, use this as an opportunity to insure the solvent won't remove the color (place a dot on a seam; wait a minute; then blot/dry and check for no color change). Then, place a clean cloth on a counter under the stained area. Use either a pipette or saturated cloth/absorbent pad and apply the selected solvent onto the back of the spot, and try to encourage it to leave and transfer to the other cloth. You might want to start outside and work toward the darker middle to help prevent bleeding/expanding. Keep an eye on the lower cloth as it must frequently be moved to a clean spot/replaced as the ink is transferred to prevent it being reabsorbed onto the shirt.
Keep applying the solvent and changing the lower pad until there is little/no more color transferred. Look around the spot to make sure it hasn't expanded and doesn’t require additional treatment in those areas.

Then wash immediately in the hot water using detergent and Clorox2. Again, check for success after the wash as another treatment might be needed. Consider air drying, as the dryer may set any remaining stain.

Q. My husband, who loves bleach, sent me your video the other day because I think bleach is bad for the environment. I listened to it and thought, "Wow, I must have been wrong all this time. Bleach isn't bad for the environment; it is just salt." But, having been raised to trust but verify, I did further research. This is what I found:

Making and transporting chlorine, which is toxic, are both dangerous processes. Greenpeace reports that despite tight controls, organochlorines are occasionally produced during chlorine manufacture, and Clorox, which buys the chlorine to make its bleach, readily admits that a serious transport accident in the late 1970s caused a total overhaul of its handling systems. [I am glad the transportation system was overhauled, but the company is buying chlorine, which undermines your video.]

Bleach itself breaks down mainly into salt, oxygen and water when it is released into the environment, but small amounts of AOX, or “adsorbable organic halides,” are also released. They are known to be toxic to shellfish and other marine and aquatic organisms. The Nordic Ministers Conference, made up of environmental ministers from Norway, Sweden and other Nordic countries, lists bleach as one of a number of substances considered dangerous to the environment. Scorecard, the hazards ranking system developed by Environmental Defense in the U.S., ranks bleach as a high risk environmentally and a slight to moderate risk in the workplace.

Ordinary table salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) is half chlorine, and a simple electrochemical reaction with salt water produces chlorine gas easily. That same reaction produces sodium hydroxide (NaOH), and by mixing chlorine gas with sodium hydroxide you create sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl). When you buy a gallon of bleach at the grocery store, what you are buying is the chemical sodium hypochlorite mixed with water in a 5.25-percent solution.

I find this information undermines your arguments that bleach is safe for the environment and thus consider your video and ad campaign misleading.

A. Thanks for your inquiry and I’m glad your husband loves bleach. I admire your research but am a little confused about the way parts of it have been interpreted or are incomplete.

Let's try and address each one:

• Yes, Clorox does buy liquid chlorine gas to produce our bleach. We do this as the easiest way to make the sodium hypochlorite active, NaOCl. The chlorine gas comes from the electrolysis of salt water. Then, we bubble the chlorine gas through a solution of water and caustic to make the dilute household liquid bleach solution (5-7% sodium hypochlorite active). There is no free chlorine in the product after this reaction is completed and the reaction is carried out in a closed, sealed container. As for the Greenpeace reference, I'd need to know what "...organochlorines are occasionally produced during chlorine manufacture" (frequency and amount) really means, as this probably is something that might occur, and they can't prove it happens. It’s theoretically possible, but consistent proof probably doesn't exist. If this were happening on a frequent basis, manufacturers definitely would/have addressed the issue.


• Yes, Clorox did overhaul the chlorine gas handling system, but not as a result of an accident at our facilities. This was done to insure that transporting and handling chlorine gas at our facility would be as safe as possible for our employees and the surrounding community. In addition, we shared this world class technology for free with our suppliers and other manufacturers to minimize the risk of an accident occurring anywhere.


• After use in household cleaning or laundry, sodium hypochlorite breaks down into 95-98% salt and water. The remaining 3-5% is easily handled/removed by either sewage treatment or a septic tank where it degrades like starting soil. Further, no liquid bleach enters the environment as it reacts with organic loads in pipes and is consumed long before it reaches sewage treatment.


• While the Nordic Ministers Report and even the Environmental Defense lists may have bleach on their list, one should note that Europeans (especially Northern Europe) historically have always had a negative bent toward bleach. A large amount of their "fear" is based on chlorine reactions in manufacturing processes like paper mills, and these industrial situations involve entirely different chemistry than using sodium hypochlorite for laundry and household cleaning. There have also been several studies published in Southern Europe that are in direct opposition to their Northern brothers position, and are based on household usage (I can send references if you like). Finally, we are registered with the United States EPA and meet all their rigid standards for efficacy and safety.


• Table salt is sodium chloride, not sodium chlorine. Actually, sodium chloride contains 60% chlorine (35/58 Mol Wt). I wouldn't recommend that you try "..the simple electrochemical reaction of salt and water," as you would find this isn't as easy as you have written. The chemical reaction to produce table salt starts with two very reactive materials,sodium and chlorine, neither of which you would want to handle, but these are changed into a chemical composition that one can put on food, run through your body, and can be found in the ocean. The new/final product has completely different properties than the starting materials, which is usually true of most chemical reactions. This also holds true for sodium hypochlorite, because at the end of the day, after reacting with stains and soils, it will be mostly salt and water. It is a very reactive chemical which quickly and effectively breaks down stains and soils into smaller parts that allow them to be more easily removed from surfaces and fibers, strips away body oils, sweat and dead skin flakes from underwear and bedding, and kills bacteria, viruses and mold/mildew so that MSRA, HIV, H1N1 and a host of other bad guys will be less of a problem for mankind. And finally, whenever there is a natural disaster, one of the first requests from folks on the front line is for cases of Clorox® Regular-Bleach to treat drinking water and prevent the spread of cholera and other debilitating diseases. They know that when used as directed, liquid bleach is safe and effective.


• So when you purchase a bottle of Clorox® Regular-Bleach at the grocery or Target, you are buying a solution of at least 6% sodium hypochlorite with a little sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate to help buffer the solution and help maintain the product performance for up to a year. Under normal usage, it will quickly break down to 95-98% salt and water, and any remaining bleach will quickly react with components in your sewer or septic tank line.

So I don't think that I have been misleading in the videos or blog material. I'm proud of the science behind Clorox® Regular-Bleach, and feel that it provides the consumer with the most cost-effective cleaning and disinfectant product on the market while doing so safely and without damaging the environment.

Q. I've used Clorox bleach to clean my white t-shirts, but I've noticed yellow stains after washing them. I do my laundry at a neighborhood laundry that has front-loading machines. I dilute the bleach with a gallon of water and add it after the water has gone into the machine for the wash cycle but still get the yellow spots. Is there any way to remove them? I don't think non-chlorine bleach is as effective on white t-shirts.

A. It's a little difficult to be sure what the likely cause is without seeing the "yellow stains". Here are some potential causes/solutions for you to consider:

• Usually, I would suspect that full-strength liquid bleach may have been poured/spilled directly on the item. Since you diluted it in a gallon of water, the yellow spots/splotches should not be from the liquid bleach. Not quite sure how you got a gallon in the washer after the front loader had filled.


• Sometimes stains, especially colored greasy/oily ones, are decolorized by liquid bleach but not all the greasy part is removed, and this can leave yellow spots. Try pre-treating with a liquid detergent (apply, rub in, wait 3-5 minutes, then wash in hot water with detergent and liquid bleach).


• Have the spots developed before as well as after you changed your bleach addition? This may be sign of either metal contamination from the pipes or incoming water source. If the liquid bleach has reacted with some metals, it causes yellow/brown spots. Your best chance at removal is probably using a rust remover product. Summit Instant Rust Out and Whink Rust Remover are 2 such products. These can usually be found in Home Depot/Lowes or hardware stores. A word of caution: ALWAYS read the label directions, and pretest the products as they should only be used on whites/colorfast colors (ALWAYS check product on a hidden color area before use to be sure it won't cause more color damage).


• Another possibility is that the person using the machine before you left behind some type of residue that the t-shirts picked up. This would be possible if the white load was the first load you washed. Or, front loader washers are known to keep a small amount of residual water at the end of the rinse cycle. This can become a breeding ground for odor-causing bacteria and mildew/mold. Using liquid bleach is a great way to control this problem, but you might have been unlucky and broken off some of the residue that stuck to your clothes. This seems unlikely as I haven't seen too many of these cases that are yellowish, and the bleach should have helped remove it from the shirts.

Finally, at home you might try a quick soak (1/2 to 1 hour) for one of the shirts in an oxygen bleach like our Clorox2® Stain Fighter and Color Booster to see if you can help replace the fabric brighteners that the liquid bleach likely destroyed. Rinse and air-dry to see if it has any effect before doing a large number of items.

Q. I work at a hospital. They are very strict on expired products. The powers that be say that the date stamped on the bottles is an expiration date.
A. It is always good to have fresh product available, especially in hospital settings.

On the Clorox® Regular-Bleach bottle shoulder there is a 2 line ink-jet code. The topline has a letter followed by a 7 digit code. The letter and first number are producing plant identification; the next 4 digits are a Julian production code and the final 2 digits are a shift identification. The second line is the EPA registration number (5813) followed by a state identification code. Thus, a code A8809507 would be Clorox® Regular-Bleach made in plant A8 on 8095 (8 for 2008 and 095 for the 95th day or April 4th).

So "the powers that be" are not correct and you can now provide them with the correct information. Clorox® Regular-Bleach will maintain its effectiveness for about 1 year when stored at room temperature, and this could be used as guidance for whether to consider replacing the current supply.

Q. I would like to ask if you may know why blotches of orange are showing up on our clothes. I use bleach on my whites only, but I'm getting orange on all our clothes, beached or not bleached. Any ideas why? Could it be the water or the old washing machine?

A. Sorry about the blotches. This is a little difficult without seeing the exact problem. Here are some potential causes and solutions:

• Since it is on all clothes, not just specific wash loads, then likely it is a water quality issue. Some metals become dissolved in either well water or come from old metal pipes, which creates rust, a common problem which can result in reddish brown to orange spots. This can be aggravated by using liquid bleach, which can react with the metals to cause a yellow/orange color.


• Your best chance at removal is probably using a rust remover product. Summit Instant Rust Out and Whink Rust Remover are two such products. These can usually be found in Home Depot/Lowes or hardware stores. A word of caution: ALWAYS read the label directions and pretest the products as they should only be used on whites/colorfast colors (ALWAYS check product on a hidden color area before using to be sure it won't cause more color damage).
  Also you might consider a good water softening/treatment system since this problem could also manifest itself in other cleaning areas. Until this is corrected, I would consider refraining from liquid bleach usage to see if the problem is not seen again. This would tend to confirm the best guess regarding the bleach.


• A much less likely option would be that biofilm has built up inside the washer and pieces of it are breaking off and depositing on your clothes. Here I would try and hot wash with detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach. Do this without any clothes to try and kill off the biofilm and rinse it away.

If the problem continues, then we need to do some more detective work.

Q. I just made a burn stain on my favorite linen shirt. Do you know if I can take it out with some bleach?

A. The dividing line for scorch marks is how badly/deeply the mark is in the fabric. Light marks usually can be removed, while deep ones probably will always have some/a lot of permanent discoloration.

I'm assuming the linen shirt is white or bleachable, and not severely discolored. Your best bet is to try and make a 50/50 hydrogen peroxide solution, add it to a dampened old white cloth, and apply it to the scorched area. To help increase the removal, use another piece of dry white cloth over the damp one, and press a medium heated iron onto it to encourage transfer of the scorch. Keep rotating damp and dry clothes until the scorch is removed. When finished, make sure you thoroughly rinse the bottom of the iron to prevent rusting AND wash the garment immediately in the warmest water recommended on the care label in detergent and the appropriate bleach. You can also try drying the item using some diluted lemon juice and sunlight to help lighten the stain (on whites/light colors only). Again, a regular wash should be completed after the exposure.

Q. During a recent training session, an instructor told the group that using regular bleach in hot water deactivates the disinfecting properties of the bleach. Is this true? The topic at hand was the use of bleach in a machine and disinfecting the "faces" of manikins used in CPR training, if that affects your response. Additionally, will using regular bleach in cold water still disinfect surfaces? And will using the newer cold-water bleach disinfect fabric as well as clean?

A. Let's take the questions one-at-a-time:

• Definitely a great idea to clean up the dummies’ faces. There seems to be some confusion about hot water decreasing/deactivating the disinfecting power of liquid bleach like Clorox® Regular-Bleach. In the situation you are describing (washing the faces in a washer with liquid bleach), the amount of liquid bleach degradation will be minimal for the 10-12 minute wash cycle. I know this from laundry disinfection studies using washing machines to substantiate our EPA claims. Cloth actually would be harder to disinfect than your faces. So using 3/4 cup of Clorox® Regular-Bleach in a regular cycle in hot or warm water should provide the desired outcome. A further comment: most washers’ hot water settings depend on the hot water tank setting, which is usually no more than 110-115F and certainly won't significantly degrade the liquid bleach.
  


• One of the great things about sodium hypochlorite, the active in Clorox® Regular-Bleach, and our other liquid bleach products, is its ability to provide disinfection under a wide range of conditions. Yes, Clorox® Regular-Bleach disinfects in cool and cold water. In fact, when natural disasters occur, one of the first products recommended to help clean-up contaminated water and surfaces is Clorox® Regular-Bleach because it's readily available and cheap (Clorox also donates truckloads to the Red Cross in these cases). In these situations, hot water is usually not available, but rescue workers know it can do the job in cool/cold water just as well.
  


• Legally, I must tell you that only Clorox® Regular-Bleach can claim disinfecting properties. In the US any product that wants to make these claims must be registered with the EPA, pass a series of tests for each type of application, and abide by some fairly restrictive rules. Companies must also separately register with each state and receive approval to make these claims ( they also can charge you a tax to enrich their coffers). For these reasons, we have chosen to only register Clorox® Regular-Bleach. This is also why most private label liquid bleaches do NOT make disinfectant claims, since they have chosen not to do the large quantity of work and expense required to obtain the EPA registration. To know if a liquid bleach is EPA registered, check the back label (ours is EPA Reg No 5813-50). As stated, Clorox® Regular-Bleach will disinfect surfaces and laundry in cold water. So, I can't tell you that CloroxPlus® Coldwater Bleach will disinfect clothes. But I can tell you it has at least the same level of sodium hypochlorite active as Clorox® Regular-Bleach.

Q. I used Clorox® Regular-Bleach on a white wool item and it became a yellowish color. Is there anything that I can use to restore its original color?

A. Bad news—on the back label of all our liquid bleach products is a statement: "Avoid bleaching wool, silk, mohair, leather, Spandex and non-fast colors."
Unfortunately, the yellowing is permanent and not reversible. The bleach reacts with the wool and changes the chemical composition. Wish I had better news.

Q. The manual for my HE washer says "Warning. DO NOT use chlorine bleach in this washing machine." Is there a reason for this?

A. Bummer; Europeans are not big on liquid bleach, and even eliminate the possibility of using it in some of their washers, like Bosch. I believe the reason for this statement is that they also use a rubber seal around the door, and are concerned about liquid bleach attacking it. Sorry, not much I can do for you. Wish I had better news.

Q. I have an area that was flooded months ago and didn't get cleaned up. I am planning on spraying all surfaces with a bug sprayer containing 50% bleach and 50% water. This area will be remodeled so the main problem is eliminating the mold and odor.

A. It's always a good idea to attack and remove any mold/mildew problems before proceeding with remodeling. I wasn't quite sure from your description which of the following situations best fit you. Here's some info on mildew and mold removal from our EPA Master Label for Clorox® Regular-Bleach:

So a couple of things for you to consider in moving forward with your plan;

• You definitely are too aggressive in your Clorox® Regular-Bleach usage; the liquid bleach active is strong enough that you won't need that concentrated of a mixture. Follow the recommendations above, but be prepared that one application may not be sufficient.


• Consider some pre-cleaning: using a detergent solution to help clean away some of the mud/yuck will allow the bleach to better attack the mold/mildew. You can mix and apply with your sprayer.


• Clorox® Regular-Bleach can be corrosive to internal metal parts of the sprayer. We use special parts in our triggers of Clorox® CleanUp spray for this reason. If you use your bug sprayer, make sure you thoroughly rinse it with clear water immediately after spraying or consider using another sprayer.


• If the area is enclosed, make sure you open any windows/doors to promote good air flow. The liquid bleach will be reacting with a lot of stuff and the reaction products might be smelly. Also consider using gloves for your hands and wearing some old clothes that you won't mind getting messed up if the bleach solution is accidentally sprayed on them.


• Finally, with the mold in the area, I would be wearing a face mask to minimize any lung contact from airborne spores.