Watch out for cleaners that look a lot like mouthwash

Here's a strange twist: You can find a child safety cap on a bottle of Listerine mouthwash, but not on Lysol, Pine-Sol or Mr. Clean.

Go figure.

With the rainbow of colors for cleaners these days, this could be a certifiable health hazard.

Mr. Clean's version "with Febreze freshness" is close to the color of the minty Listerine.

One of my colleagues in the cloak of early morning darkness reached in the cabinet one day and grabbed what he thought was mouthwash. What he got was the "powerful … multipurpose cleaner."

Obviously, both products are designed to kill germs, but one might also cause serious harm to you.

Sad thing is old "Mr. Yuk" — the longtime warning label not to swallow a poisonous product — is on Facebook, but not on the cleaner bottles. For the record, I became a fan of Mr. Yuk on Facebook. Perhaps, the brawny Mr. Clean and his counterparts should become fans, too.

Susan Baba, a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble, which manufactures Mr. Clean, said the safety caps on mouthwash are requirements by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Mouthwash is a regulated product.

Baba said consumers enjoy being able to smell the household cleaning products in the store aisles and safety caps hinder that.

And the safety issues are not the same, because consumers store household cleaners separately from products such as mouthwash. (Tell that to my colleague.)

"For the majority of consumers, they usually would keep their mouthwash out in the open and their cleaning products on the shelf or in the cabinet," Baba said.

Johnson & Johnson, the maker of Listerine (a child safety cap user) declined to comment for this column. The company did not want to disparage any competitors that might be named because they didn't use safety caps on their cleaners.

Bill Newton, executive director of the Florida Consumer Action Network, said the companies are simply making excuses.

"It is legal for the company to go beyond the government regulation," Newton said. "What they're probably not saying is that it would be awkward for consumers to fumble with the caps and thus reduce their sales. They're not interested in safety, they're interested in sales."

So here's the Edge:

• Keep items out of the reach of children. Whether mouthwash or cleaner, keep the products safely away from the kids.

• Place mouthwash and cleaners in separate locations. Pick places that will not leave you confused in the dark about whether you're swishing with mouthwash or Mr. Clean.

Ivan Penn can be reached at ipenn@sptimes.com or (727) 892-2332. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Consumers_Edge and become a fan of Consumers Edge on Facebook.