Like with household toasters, be wary of Glade PlugIns for hospital use

I’ve occasionally been asked about Glade PlugIns and their appropriateness in hospitals.

To be honest with you, I don’t know enough about the items to be able to say for sure, though I daresay that this would certainly tie back to the old risk assessment process.

I checked out Glade’s Web site and I see that the PlugIn apparently works as a scented oil warmer, is UL listed, does not consume a great deal of electricity, etc. There is a questions section that notes there not having been any fires involving PlugIns (I’ve seen e-mails to that effect that were summarily debunked by Snopes and others), though the wording of the response to that question smacks of, “We know it doesn’t cause fires because we’d have heard about it by now, I’m sure.”

It goes on to talk about some additional due diligence, which certainly could be taken into consideration for a risk assessment. Of course, consideration of how and where it is to be used should be in the mix, and I think that I would probably be inclined to contact SC Johnson directly to discuss non-home usage.

This is very much like household toasters and other appliances: There’s no law that says that you can’t use such appliances in a hospital, but you might find your property insurer is less likely to pay a settlement if there is an incident involving a household-use only appliance, regardless of its point of origin.