Lysol

A number of people have referred to Lysol and its supposed
composition. Having no vested interests in the product, Lysol is not
a product I have ever had any dealings with I decided to undertake
further investigations.
The following details comes from one of the leading producers whom I
spoke with earlier today. Lysol contains

    phenol (40-55%)
    cresol (3%) and
    water (the rest),

It does not contain o-phenol phenol. For those of you unfamiliar
with Cresol I gather that it is a fraction of coal tar, and is a
phenolic type product.

    **** Moderator's comments: Phenol is a synonym for carbolic
    acid, see Glenda Stevens posting on this subject. On my request
    for further info about his source, Mark wrote back

        It does look to me and the technical chemist whom I obtained
        this information from as though there may well be
        differences between the product we know as "Lysol" here in
        Europe and the one known to you and produced by Reckit and
        Coleman Inc in the States.

        The technical chemist I spoke to would not permit his name
        or that of his company to be used but had no problem
        confirming that they (the company) had dealt with "Lysol"
        for many years and that it had always had the same
        composition (ie it did not contain o-phenol phenol).

        I am informed that Lysol is only available in the one
        version here and is of European origin.

I have come across changes of this sort before in the specification
of products used in conservation where subtle differences appeared
in the composition of a product made by a major Chemical
Manufacturer for the American as against the European marketplace.

Mark Vine
Conservation Resources
England

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:46
                 Distributed: Monday, November 23, 1998
                       Message Id: cdl-12-46-005
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