`Detergent Spheres' Spin To A Halt In Ore.

SALEM, Ore. - Two Florida companies have agreed to stop Oregon marketing of plastic spheres touted as an alternative to laundry detergent.

Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers announced the agreement yesterday and warned individual distributors in the state to stop selling the products immediately.

TradeNet Marketing and TOP Marketing Business Consulting admitted no wrongdoing in the assurances of voluntary compliance filed in Marion County Circuit Court.

A third company, American Technologies Group of Monrovia, Calif., also filed an assurance of compliance. The California company sold some product components to TradeNet.

The companies marketed a device known variously as The Laundry Solution, the "Blue Ball," and Globe or SuperGlobe.

The balls were sold through local distributors that purchased them from TradeNet.

"It is not easy for consumers to evaluate marketing claims based on supposed new scientific discoveries," Myers said. "As a result, it is often difficult to tell the latest technological advancement from the latest scam. My office became involved because these products were being marketed aggressively and their distributors were making improbable claims."

Initially, the companies claimed that the sphere used specially treated "structured water" to emit a negative charge through the walls of the sphere. The companies stated that when the sphere is used in a washing machine, the negative charge cleans the clothes,

eliminating the need for detergent, the Attorney General's Office said.

The companies later revised their claims in brochures that said the spheres now contained "Ie Crystals" that were supposed to enable the balls to clean clothes. The globes later were replaced by "SuperGlobes" that were supposed to be used with an additive that contained detergent.

The Oregon Department of Justice had the various products tested by an independent laboratory. Results indicated that the water in the spheres had no special characteristics. The "globe products" essentially contain nothing more than water, blue dye and a foaming additive contained within a plastic shell, the Attorney General's Office said.

Of the $190,000 to be paid to the Justice Department, $65,000 will be used for restitution to customers and $125,000 for future consumer protection and education activities. American Technologies Group agreed to pay $20,000 in restitution.