Products for an Odor-Free Home

Products for an Odor-Free Home

 

The battle against bad smells is moving to a new front.

 

For years, makers of room deodorants and plug-in air fresheners were the big players in the home-odor-fighting business. But lately, textile manufacturers have entered the fray. They've taken some of the home's most odor-absorbent materials, re-engineered them, and created a host of new products that promise to neutralize bad smells. Among the latest technologies: fabrics treated with bacteria-killing silver ions, upholstery its maker says is woven so tightly that smells can't get in, even drapery embedded with the same sort of enzymes found in yogurt.

 

In July, Home Depot introduced a new line of carpeting, Puresque, which has salts that are chemically bonded to its fibers. The retailer says the salts "act like magnets to trap and destroy odors." Manufactured by Beaulieu of America, the carpet sells for $1.77 to $3.22 a square foot, uninstalled, about the same price as non-odor-eating carpets. Last year, textile giant Milliken & Co. started putting odor-fighting ions in all of its carpeting and fabric. And Interface's FLOR carpet tiles, introduced in 2003, have antimicrobials the company says inhibit the growth of smelly bacteria.

 

Researchers say the market is ripe for such products. Americans are more obsessed with sanitation and personal hygiene than many other cultures, says chemist Craig Warren, a visiting scholar at the University of California in San Diego and the science adviser to the Sense of Smell Institute in New York.

 

Read more about ways to deal with bad smells in your house…