# Laundry Balls and Toilet Plumes

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-balls-and-toilet-plumes/81>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [June 1, 1999, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-balls-and-toilet-plumes/81 "1999-06-01T21:25:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 1999, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-balls-and-toilet-plumes/81/1 "1999-06-01T21:25:00Z")

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Greetings knowledgable ones,

As I was reading through the archives, I noticed that Cecil, he whose dope is straightest, spoke of testing the cleaning properties of laundry balls or disks and detergents. The results - neither is necessary - plain water works just as well. On the other hand, speaking of the plume of bacteria coming from flushed toilets and the problems of similar bacteria on underwear, I note that the laundering of underwear should recieve special attention. This suggests to me that someone has probably done a more in depth analysis of the antibacterial properties of various detergents (I suspect that the laundry balls do not do any better killing bacteria than the plain water). I want to know whether standard modern detergents kill the majority of bacteria or if I need to be sure to bleach my underwear (thus discommending colored underwear).

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If ‘meese’ was the plural of ‘moose’ then what would the plural of ‘mice’ be? 😉