The Iowa Fire Marshal’s office is debunking an e-mail that’s floating around and alarming some Iowa homeowners. The bogus email claims a plug-in air freshener was responsible for a devastating housefire, but Jeff Quigle, the state’s Fire Prevention Bureau supervisor, says those products are NOT dangerous. Quigle says there are U-L testing laboratories and other labs that have tested these products under all sorts of conditions and they’ve all tested out and been safe. Just like those who circulate a computer virus via email, he says it’s perterbing that someone would spread disinformation like this.He says the email likely concerned a lot of people about the product unnecessarily, fearing it could start a fire. Quigle says he wants to reassure everyone, there are -no- fire cases in Iowa where one of the plug-ins was implicated. He says people who use the Internet should know by now, just because they read it doesn’t make it true.The well-known “Urban Legends” website echoes Quigles assurances about the product. The following link contains the original e-mail, links to numerous reports on the safety of the products and a statement from the maker.http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_plug_in_air_freshener.htm
