Very Important, Please Read!

[The Outlaw]

This is a cross post. Hope none of you guys have ANY!
This is one of those e-mails that if you didn't send it, assuredly, someone on your list will suffer for not reading it....... this is from a friend of mine whom I know personally - this is NOT a chain email letter:

This is what my friend wrote:


"My brother and his wife learned a hard lesson this last week. Their house burned down.. nothing left but ashes. They have good insurance, so the home will be replaced and most of the contents. That is the good news. However, they were sick when they found out the cause of the fire.

The insurance investigator sifted through the ashes for several hours. He had the cause of the fire traced to the master bathroom. He asked my sister-in-law what she had plugged in the bathroom. She listed the normal things....curling iron, blow dryer. He kept saying to her, "No, this would be something that would disintegrate at high temperatures." Then, my sister-in-law remembered she had a Glade Plug-in in the bathroom.

The investigator had one of those "Aha" moments. He said that was the cause of the fire. He said he has seen more home fires started with the plug in type room fresheners than anything else. He said the plastic they are made from is a THIN plastic. He said in every case there was nothing left to prove that it even existed. When the investigator looked in the wall plug, the two prongs left from the plug-in were still in there.

My sister-in-law had one of the plug-ins that had a small night light built in it. She said she had noticed that the light would dim....and then finally go out. She would walk in a few hours later, and the light would be back on again.

The investigator said that the unit was getting too hot, and would dim and go out rather than just blow the light bulb. Once it cooled down, it would come back on. That is a warning sign.

The investigator said he personally wouldn't have any type of plug in fragrance device anywhere in his house. He has seen too many burned down homes.

Thought I would warn you all. I had some of them plugged in my house. I immediately took them all down.

PASS THIS ON TO ALL THE PEOPLE YOU CARE ABOUT! "

[LtlWngdAngl]

Thanks Nancy! BUT, hopefully, no one here has them plugged in if they have birds living with them!!

[Stacey32]

Guys, this is on snopes...

http://www.snopes.com/toxins/glade.asp

but, they did have a recall on some apparently. I agree, I wouldn't trust those darn air freshener things any way.

[The Outlaw]

Thanks, Stacey. I just found that out. This had been posted on my board and I didn't think to check it out. My members usually do. In any event, as I've said in the past, remove what smells bad and you don't need ANYTHING to mask the smell.

THE OUTLAW

[Stacey32]

Yeah, I was taken by the Winston Churchill parrot story :(

The glade thing does have some credence to it though-even pointed out on the snopes site. I was watching some air freshener commercial last night and I thought to myself, why would you want to add more pollutants into your house? Just never made sense to me.

[SavvyMoon]

Ok, so the story regarding the plug-ins is greatly exaggerated, if not untrue.... but Thanks Nancy, 'cause I'm going to use take the warning you posted and send it to my (25 yr old) daughter's email for her to read!! :icon_mrgr mwhuhuhuhuh....

See, she uses a plug-in in her room.... (which is well away from my birds at the other end of the house AND she keeps her door closed 99% of the time as well...) and I've been trying to convince her for MONTHS that it can't be "good" for her to breathe in that crap.

She gets migrains at least once or twice a month too.
And the fact that she breathes in that stuff just makes me crazy. Kids! They always gotta learn the hard way, you know? but maybe this little newsflash will get her to throw that damn thing away!

Now, as far as scents in the house and all....
If there's one thing I miss -SO MUCH!- because I have birds in the house now, it's my scented candles and my incense, etc .
I have to say, it's not *always* about covering unpleasant odors, or hiding the fact that the house is well, less-than-well-kept...
I just LOVE scents.
I love walking into (any) house and smelling spices and herbs, or delicate florals and incense.

In my bedroom I have always burned very high quality Indian incense (and other imported kinds) almost every night for both pleasure and well, "spiritual reasons".
Since I added birds to my household, I burn incense maybe once a week or so. I miss it. Very much.

I almost never use scented candles or simmer pots in any common areas of the house anymore.
I sometimes do the bubbling pan of cinnamon, cloves and orange peels, but it's more trouble than a candle or incense.
Also, technically, boiling stuff like that on the stove is releasing the same essential oils that they use in (good quality) candles and incense.

Well there's no argument or debate here...
I'm just spewing and whining about missing my
pretty smells and incense. But the birds are worth it!

Savvy*

[Vega]

Savvy, I'm with you! Of all the things I miss the most, it's my scented candles. I used to burn a 3 wick in my room every night to relax before going to bed. Just enough light that I could see without having all the "big lights" on. But since I got my fids all the candles we have are for show...I've even removed the wick from most of them to deter anyone from attempting to light one. :icon_roll

Of all the things on the market I would avoid the Glade products more than the rest. Simply becuase I have read many stories about the Glade candles leading to the death of a families beloved fid. Makes me think they are putting more than just "scent" in there.

[Granny_Mike]

Could someone please enlighten me about using candles? I don't burn them as a rule, but sometimes I like to just for ambience, or some such emotional self-gratificational reason. I have never liked Glade scents of any kind so I don't have that problem with them or anything else. I do occasionally spray a mist of Febreze as it works well for stale winter air. Is burning candles unhealthy for birds? I have seven strange and wonderful parakeets, all of whom I talk to on a daily basis and all of whom turn their heads to me as I call each of their names. I would hate to think I was endangering their health in any way by anything I might be doing, especially in ignorance. I have only had them a couple of years. Only one is really amenable to human relationships, but none of them bite, even when picked up by grandchildren.