Content about chemicals

Central Garden & Pet, a leading supplier of seeds, pottery, garden chemicals and other outdoor living products, reported net sales of $533.8 million for its third fiscal quarter, an increase of 10% from sales of $484.3 million during the same period a year ago.

Net income for the quarter, which ended June 23, totaled $22.7 million, compared with net income of $17.1 million in the third quarter of 2011.

Sometimes, the editorial offices of Home Channel News will get sample products to review. Seldom do we write a full commentary about them.

The Rescue! Pop! Fly Trap is one of those rare products worthy of a commentary.

I don’t like the name. It contains too many exclamation points. (The New York Times editors have a longstanding rule: they can use one exclamation point per century.)

But, man, does that thing catch flies!

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed that companies be required to report to EPA all new uses, including in domestic or imported products, of five groups of potentially harmful chemicals. Over the years, these chemicals have been used in a range of consumer products and industrial applications, including paints, printing inks, pigments and dyes in textiles, and flame retardants in flexible foams, plasticizers and some building materials. 

Chestnut Ridge, N.Y.-based Soft By Nature is pointing to clothes dryers as real energy hogs and pointing to its own Woolzies as an energy-saving idea.

The company has launched Woolzies, an all-natural fabric softener for use in dryers. Neither a dryer sheet nor a liquid, Woolzies are New Zealand wool dryer balls that soften laundry naturally, without any of the chemicals found in conventional fabric softeners.

Siemens Industry, in collaboration with the Green Seal organization, has published a guide for public housing owners and operators to help them reduce the use of energy, water and toxic chemicals. Called "Green Building Operations and Maintenance Manual: A Guide for Public Housing Authorities," the publication is now available free online by clicking here. 

St. Paul, Minn.-based 3M is breaking ground on an expansion at its Cordova, Ill., facility, which manufactures specialty chemicals and adhesives, including 3M’s Novec brand products.

A recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announcement about consumer use of spray foam insulation threatens to deflate the growing sales — and availability — of this popular product. In April, the EPA expressed its concerns about certain chemicals found in spray polyurethane foam, which is applied as a liquid and then expands to fill cavities or gaps. 


According to a report by CBS News, a number of Canadian consumers are coming into the United States to purchase pesticides, herbicides and other garden chemicals no longer sold in Canada because of that country’s strict regulations. Others are simply ordering products over the Internet from other countries.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced plans to address the potential health risks to consumers of certain chemicals contained in spray foam insulation, sealing concrete and finishing floors. These chemicals, methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI), toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and other related compounds, are known to cause severe skin and breathing responses in workers who have been repeatedly exposed to them, according to the EPA.

Knauf Insulation, the Shelbyville, Ind.-based manufacturer, has filed a patent infringement action against CertainTeed Corp. in an Indiana federal court. According to the lawsuit, Knauf Insulation mineral wool is made with ECOSE technology, a sustainable binder technology based on rapidly renewable bio-based materials rather than petroleum-based chemicals commonly used in traditional fiberglass insulation products.  

Listening to a company’s quarterly earnings conference can be the equivalent of watching a CEO read a PowerPoint presentation, followed by a group of analysts grilling him on EBIT margins, payout ratios and basis points. Or it can be like panning for gold, with nuggets surfacing about store openings and closings, new products launches, new accounts with retail customers or “terminated” relationships with former customers. Competitors even talk about each other — sometimes by name — with a little prompting from analysts.