Jan 17 2011

Red Slurpee vs White Laminate

Red Slurpee (RS) is a complicated molecular compound. It’s main purpose is to stain things.

It was therefore an unequal match when RS was found to have been in contact with a white laminated table in our unit today.

The large red stain was resistant to prolonged vigorous scrubbing and to detergent. Shannon Lush was not returning our call.

In desperation, we applied toothpaste to the stain. To our surprise, it had an immediate effect and with a little rubbing the table was pristine again.

 

Toothpaste contains three major ingredients – abrasives, fluoride and detergent. Whitening toothpaste will also contain peroxide. Most of the benefits from teeth cleaning are in fact attributable to the mechanical action of the brush, rather than the paste. Abrasives make up more than 50% of toothpaste, and a number of different agents are used. If you don’t have any toothpaste, salt or baking soda would make a good alternative.

Our Slurpee stain had a good outcome (unless you look at it from the Slurpee point of view). It is possible that salt or baking soda would have been as effective. I’m not game to do a double blind control study to find out.