Household Products

What if your kitchen counters could smell like the herbs you cook with, and your sheets like fresh-cut grass? What if your household products were so decorative you wouldn't want to put them under the sink? For homemakers who like to pamper themselves with small touches of luxury and are willing to pay for them, manufacturers have come out with high-end lines that look as good as they clean and smell even better. They have names like Citrus Mint Ylang Ylang Dish Soap Liquid and Basil-Verbena Window Wash with Essential Oils.

CINCINNATI - Procter & Gamble Co. agreed yesterday to acquire Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s Clairol unit for $4.95 billion to begin selling hair coloring, a market with sales growing twice as fast as household products. Clairol's Nice`n Easy, Natural Instincts and Miss Clairol brands will give Procter & Gamble the No. 2 position in the U.S. hair-color market. The cash acquisition is the biggest in Procter & Gamble's 164-year history and will add $1.6 billion in annual sales, the company said.

Black & Decker Corp. shares jumped more than 9 percent yesterday after the company said earnings in its pivotal fourth quarter would be stronger than expected.The Towson-based company said strong power tool sales in the U.S. offset a weak retail climate in Brazil, economic turmoil in Asia and foreign currency fluctuations in Europe."Although final, audited numbers are not yet available, it looks as though our operating results for the fourth quarter were the strongest in Black & Decker's history," said Nolan D. Archibald, chairman and chief executive officer.

You won't necessarily find their polysyllabic names on any labels, but scientists are finding dangerous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) -- chemicals that turn to gas at normal room temperatures -- haunting our indoor air. They are used in hundreds of household products. Here are some ways you can improve the quality of the air at home:* Gather up opened cans of paint, varnishes, thinners, strippers and stains and store them in an unattached garage or shed. The molecules of VOCs are so tiny that they'll escape from an opened container, no matter how tightly you reseal it.* Gather up automotive products, such as chrome polish, brake cleaner and car wax and stack them in the shed next to the paints.

Bad news. The kitchen sink is stopped up, the cat had a accident on the carpet, you've got wine stains on the tablecloth and ring around the collar, the silver is tarnished, the windows are smudgy and your mother-in-law is stopping by for tea.No problem, you say. You open the cupboard under the sink and expose your awe-inspiring arsenal of commercial cleansers, bleaches, polishes, paints, strippers, solvents, removers, deodorizers, disinfectants, detergents, abrasives...

Leather couch needs a face-lift before the holidays I am expecting lots of company this holiday season, and my leather couch isn't up to the task. Short of buying all new, do you have any tips on how I can hide or repair the damage? Should I just throw a sheet over it? The people at Fibrenew, which specializes in the repair and restoration of leather, offer this advice: Don't use any products that contain alcohol or acetone. Alcohol seeps into and damages the protective surface of furniture leather.

Can I expect my shares of Sara Lee Corp. to show improvement in the near future? - R.F., via the Internet The global food, beverage and household products company, which spun off its Hanesbrands division to shareholders nearly a year ago, is still adapting to its makeover. Because it also shed a number of businesses in its international apparel, snack brands, domestic coffee and meat snack operations, it must convince investors that this smaller, more-centralized look suits it. At issue is whether everything is coming together quickly and effectively enough to merit the current stock price.

Every day, in an industrial park in Owings Mills, workers violently shake bottles of Snuggle fabric softener, drop boxes of Wisk detergent until they burst, and generally make life miserable for a variety of Lever Brothers Co. products.The aim is not industrial terrorism, but rather a multimillion-dollar effort by the giant household products maker to find better, cheaper and more environmentally sound ways of packaging its goods.Lever Brothers' Packaging Development Center, which opened in January and was dedicated yesterday, is a 32,000-square-foot facility for the design and testing of new packages.

Americans don't throw enough parties -- not enough Tupperware parties, at least -- to satisfy the Kissimmee, Fla.-based company.To cope with consumers' increasingly busy schedules, Tupperware North America began experimenting this month with direct sales by telephone or mail in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Potential customers can order from catalogs without attending the company's well-known demonstration parties.Tupperware sells plastic food containers, kitchenware and other household products.

So many items in the home and office are potential poisoning risks, from cleaners to medications to personal care items. Kids are particularly at risk of ingesting poisons because they don't always know the difference between what's safe and what's not. Bruce D. Anderson, director of operations at the Maryland Poison Center, has heard it all. He answers questions about who calls the center and what help they can get. Who is most likely to get poisoned?...