Just like a mother of three in Columbus, I placed blame where blame was not due. The mother blamed the dishwasher; I blamed my children.
Lately, I’ve been assuming the white, powdery film that occasionally remained on our dishes was the result of someone (er, some child) forgetting to add the detergent.
Alas, I read today that my children are not to blame — blame lies with the state (the state of Ohio, in this instance). And I should have guessed as much.
Turns out, unbeknownst to me, the legislators of my state saw fit to ban any dish cleansing agent “that contains phosphorus in any form in excess of one-half per cent by weight expressed as elemental phosphorus.”
Although the ban took effect last July, detergent already in a retailer’s inventory was grandfathered (explaining the sporadic and delayed effect).
Of course, there is a carve-out. The ban does not apply to cleaning agents “that are used in an automatic or machine dishwasher in a commercial or institutional facility.”
Seems we can’t have folks grumbling over dirty dishes in public. But let them grumble at home, while eating cake on filmy plates.
So now I have to either put up with the filmy particles on my dishes or use additional resources (in the form of water, natural gas to heat the water, time, etc.) to wash my dishes before I put them in the dishwasher.
What a waste! Whose idea was this anyway?
