The mystery of the washing balls – the scientific take in an article in the newspaper El Punt Avui

In a recent article published at the Catalan newspaper El Punt Avui on May 22, journalist Miquel Riera presented the scientific take on the “washing balls” (“bolas de lavado”) or “eco-balls” (“eco-bolas”), a new product that is advertised as a way to do laundry without detergents.

Along with other scientists and representatives of the laundry industry, Prof. Puntes provided a scientific view on this product and how it works (actually, it does not), given his expertise on Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.

As scientists, one of our goals is to provide the general public with scientific information and analysis, so we gladly participated in this dissemination effort from El Punt Avui.

Read the full article here (in Catalan): http://www.elpuntavui.cat/noticia/article/2-societat/5-societat/37759-el-misteri-de-les-boles-de-rentar.html

Update (05/02/2011): The “washing balls” were later analyzed by the Instituto Nacional del Consumo (INC) of the Spanish Goverment and officially removed from the market.